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November is American Diabetes Management month and with more than 30 million people living with diabetes in the United States, it’s no wonder. The American Diabetes Association estimates at least seven million of those people, don’t even realize they’re living the disease. Health organizations, and those working within the field, say the disease has reached epidemic portions. It’s something the Sentara Diabetes Management Program team sees every day.

“The numbers are increasing, both type 1 and 2 are on the rise,” says Registered Nurse and Certified Diabetes Educator Robyn Johanson, “It is a chronic, lifelong illness that really requires the person to learn the skills to self-manage their diabetes. And with that, they need a lot of ongoing support and the necessary tools to do that successfully.” Diabetes can be confusing to understand. When you eat, your body turns food into sugars, or glucose. At that point, your pancreas is supposed to release insulin.  Insulin serves as a “key” to open your cells, to allow the glucose to enter — and allows you to use the glucose for energy. But with diabetes, this system does not work.