Video Transcript

Welcome to “A Virtual Q&A with Shoppers Drug Mart Pharmacists”! Join our pharmacists as they answer your questions on various health and medication topics.

What factors can increase my risk of diabetes?

For diabetes, there are many different risk factors associated with the disease. Those things can differ depending on which diabetes a person has. In some cases, age is obviously a risk factor. In type 2 diabetes higher age is definitely a risk factor, whereas in type 1 it’s a lower age category. Ethnicity is one of those risk factors that can play a part. Being overweight can also cause an issue with those for type 2 diabetes. Some other things and factors that we can kind of control and keep medicated are high blood pressure, that is something that pharmacies can definitely help you with and manage to decrease that risk factor. And your physician and pharmacist can also play a major role in high cholesterol and managing that, so that risk factors decrease. We want to be able to prevent risk factors that are uncontrollable so that people don’t end up getting diabetes.
Lifestyle choices are vital at altering the progression of hypertension and subsequent events. Life modifications that can be made to better manage hypertension include limiting your daily intake of sodium to less than 2000 milligrams per day, limiting your daily intake of alcohol, aiming for a healthy body weight, increasing physical activity, quit smoking if applicable, and much more. If lifestyle modifications are insufficient in treating elevated blood pressure, your doctor or your pharmacist may recommend that you do start taking medications. It is very important that you take your medications as prescribed and not alter the dose of your medication without speaking to your pharmacist or your doctor. Speak to your pharmacist today if the blood pressure is higher than normal even if you have no symptoms.

Whether you have questions about your prescription medications, over-the-counter products, immunizations, or other health concerns, our pharmacists are here to help.

The information provided is for personal use, reference and education only and is not intended to be a substitute for a physician’s advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult your healthcare professional for specific information on personal health matters.

The information included in this recording is correct as of May 20th, 2021