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 multiple Henry Ford Health locations.
Nine Convenient Locations:
- Henry Ford Genesys Heart and Vascular, 3399 Pollock Rd, Grand Blanc, MI 48439
- Henry Ford Jackson Hospital, The Anderson Building, 1101-1199 Homewild Ave, Jackson, MI 49201
- Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, 16151 19 Mile Rd, Suite 305, Clinton Township, MI 48038
- Henry Ford Medical Center - Second Avenue, 6525 2nd Ave, Detroit, MI 48202
- Henry Ford Providence Southfield Hospital, 16001 W 9 Mile Rd, Southfield, MI 48075
- Henry Ford Rochester Hospital, 1101 W University Dr, Rochester, MI 48307
- Henry Ford St. John Hospital, 22101 Moross Rd, Detroit, MI 48236
- Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, 6777 W Maple Rd, West Bloomfield, MI 48322
- Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, 2333 Biddle Ave, Wyandotte, MI 48192
The Source: Information for this article is from an interview with Dr. Shukri David.