Blood sugar health is a key part of a healthy lifestyle and professional women who manage their blood sugar properly reduce their risk of heart disease. Test how well you manage your blood sugar.
Answer Yes or No by each question:
1) ___I know what simple sugars in foods are (otherwise known as the gylycemic index).
2) ___I know what my body mass index is.
3) ___I know that a borderline high blood sugar might mean that I am at risk.
4) ___I know what my fasting blood sugar is.
5) ___I know that a borderline high blood pressure, increased triglycerides, increased abdominal girth and borderline high sugar means I have the metabolic syndrome which is a pre-diabetic state.
6) ___I know that drinking more than 2 diet-sodas a day might be harmful.
7) ___I know that the "western diet" of hamburgers, diet sodas and high glycemic index foods can lead to diabetes.
8) ___I know that I can take control of my diet, my exercise and my health and prevent the metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
Answer Key:
If you answered:
Yes to a total of 6-8 questions, you are doing well, however you need to make sure you are up to date, i.e. Know your numbers with in a year of seeing your doctor, and are implementing the good diet and health knowledge that you have. See Blood Sugar Facts for Professional Women by Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum for more information.
Yes to a total of 4-6 questions, you need to see your doctor and get your blood sugar information, and also review your diet and exercise to make sure that you are setting yourself up for optimal health, and at the very least, are preventing gliding into the often inconspicuous yet alarmingly dangerous pre-diabetes state. See Blood Sugar Facts for Professional Women by Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum for more information.
Yes to a total of 1-3 questions, seeing your doctor should be a number one priority and do review, study and put to use questions 1, and 5-8 because all of the answers are Yes. See Blood Sugar Facts for Professional Women by Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum for more information.
Suzanne Steinbaum,
is director, Women and Heart Disease, Heart and Vascular Institute, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She is often cited in magazines and newspapers and has done network news health segments for ABC, NBC and CBS as a leading consultant in the field of women and heart disease, preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation. She has been featured on the Discovery Health Channel's "Health Cops," a show dedicated to risk factor modification in young people at risk for developing heart disease. Suzanne has been the resident physician on "The Apprentice." She has written on topics of cardiac prevention and nutrition has been quoted in many publications. She is, as of January 2008, the Kellogg’s Healthy Start Program on Heart disease Awareness spokeswoman. For more information see: www.forwomenshearts.com.
