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This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC - safer, healthier people.

Hi Babies. This is Mother Love, and I’m here to tell you that diabetes and its complications do not have to be your destiny. I am here to let you know, as a person who manages this insidious, equal opportunity, ugly disease every single day, because I too have type 2 diabetes.

I want you to understand how fabulous you are — that you do not have to lose your eye sight, you don’t have to go on kidney dialysis, you do not have to lose your lower limbs, suffer a heart attack, nor a stroke, when you can take and make healthy choices, healthy options. You can go to the grocery store right there in your community and make healthier choices, just like I’ve done.

Get up, walk, move, swim, exercise, jog, stand up off that couch, get yourself up, move during the commercials; just get your body moving. I’m never going to tell you, my babies, that this is easy. I’m going to let you know - it can be done.

Let people know; don’t be ashamed to tell people you have diabetes. It’s not a weakness under any circumstances. When you tell somebody that you have diabetes, you’re empowering yourself and you empower them, because you give them the information that they might be able to share with their family, with their friends, because maybe they don’t know what the symptoms are.

We have to understand what the symptoms are, we need to know what our numbers are, we need to know what a normal portion of food looks like, and we can do this, we can do this! You can manage effectively your diabetes. I am Mother Love, and I love you!

To learn more about diabetes and to order free educational materials, please visit www.ndep.nih.gov or call the National Diabetes Education Program at 1-800-438-5383. That’s 1-800-438-5383. I am Mother Love, “Let’s get better together!”

[Announcer] To access the most accurate and relevant health information that affects you, your family and your community, please visit www.cdc.gov.