Diabetes testing included in free Healthy Heart Project by Henry Ford Health

Healthy Heart Project tests for diabetes

One drop of blood can reveal if you are at risk for Type 2 diabetes, and at the free Healthy Heart Project hosted by Henry Ford Health, 

FOX 2 - It's just a little finger poke, a drop of blood and just like that, you can learn if you're at risk for type 2 diabetes which can be doing slow, subtle damage in your body for years unnoticed.

"Diabetes is really a silent killer like hypertension," said Dr. Shukri David.

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David, a Henry Ford Heath cardiologist, says it's silent because the symptoms go unnoticed - as your body's insulin doesn't do the job of getting sugar from food into your cells for energy that sugar builds up in your blood.

"Blood sugar abnormalities and diabetes can lead to heart attacks, strokes and blindness," he said. "A whole host of abnormalities with diabetes."

That's why blood glucose testing is one of our healthy heart screenings- to be as accurate as possible, try to fast for eight hours or more.

"Try not to eat in the morning, just have your usual dinner," Dr. David said. "We'll be able to do a fasting glucose check to see if your sugar is elevated or not."

Related: Healthy Heart Project offers free screenings at 9 Henry Ford Health locations

And if it is elevated, often you can start with lifestyle changes - eating the right stuff, exercising and losing even a little weight. Dr. David explains every year at The Healthy Heart Project many are surprised to learn about their blood sugar.

"We find at least 50 to 100 patients and found a number of patients who had kidney failure, as a result of additional testing, so yes very important test," he said.

Here's the info you need, it's happening on Saturday April 18th and it starts at 7 a.m.

There are nine Henry Ford Health locations taking part.

Open this link for the nine locations.