Walk to Work day is a government initiative supporting Diabetes Australia to spread awareness about Diabetes and it’s crippling and fatal effects. You don’t necessarily need to walk from home to work; this initiative is to encourage walking more often as it increases energy usage and assists the usage of energy deriving from sugars. Taking actions such as parking your car slightly further away from your work, or taking public transport instead of using your car.
You can read more about the initiate here: https://www.walk.com.au/WTW/homepage.asp
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease that restricts the hormone, Insulin. This hormone is formed by the pancreas and helps Blood Glucose (a.k.a Blood Sugar) absorb into cells and replenishes the body with energy. When your Blood Glucose is too high, the usage and production of Insulin becomes overloaded and starts failing to relieve the Blood Glucose from the blood to the cells.
The Various Types
There are various types of Diabetes. Type 1 diabetes restricts the production of Insulin and causes your immune system to attack the cells in your pancreas. It is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, but can appear at any age. To stay alive, people with T1 Diabetes need insulin injections daily.
Type 2 Diabetes is the most common type of diabetes which stops the body from producing or utilising Insulin. It can be developed at any age but occurs more often in middle-aged and elder-aged people.
Gestational Diabetes can commonly develop in pregnant women. However, this type of diabetes is usually temporary and it’s effects start to subside after the birth. This type of diabetes can lead to Type 2 Diabetes, and sometimes can be mistaken for Type 2 diabetes.
Other types include monogenic diabetes, which is an inherited form of diabetes, and cystic-fibrosis diabetes.
The Negative Impact of Diabetes
Diabetes can cause complications such as preventable blindness, amputations from diabetes-related ulcers, heart-disease, kidney disease and more.
In Australia, more than 1.8 million people are diagnosed with some type of diabetes, 500,000 people are living with undiagnosed and untreated diabetes, and 120,000+ people are diagnosed with diabetes every year. That’s 280 people per day, one person every five minutes.
The economic impact of diabetes in Australia is around $14.6 billion AUD annually.
Globally, Diabetes is recognised as the world’s fastest growing chronic condition. In 2013, over 1.5 million people died with an additional 2.2 million deaths from extremely high blood sugar levels causing risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.
By 2040, the Internal Diabetes Federation (IDF) Diabetes Atlas estimated that one in 10 adults will have diabetes (total of 642 million people) and diabetes-related health expenditures will exceed over $802 billion USD.
The Walk to Work Day Initiative – Help Support Millions with Diabetes
With the Walk to Work Day initiative, you can help those in need by donating towards the cause. If you would like to make a difference, please visit the funding page for Diabetes Australia:
https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/about-us/ways-to-donate-and-make-a-difference/
Purple Cow Industries is proudly supporting Diabetes Australia and encourages our employees to walk to work on 2nd September 2022.
Daily regular walking helps you to relieve any depression and anxious feelings and reduces car dependency.
Together we can beat diabetes and save lives, become the healthier you, and walk more often every day.
Purple Cow Industries shows ongoing support and commitment for our environment and community by promoting wellness initiatives.