While November is known as Diabetes Awareness Month, nearly 350,000 Mississippians battle the deadly disease on a daily basis.

Greg Stueve, an RN CDE (certified diabetes educator) at South Central Regional Medical Center, said Laurel/Jones County has higher percentage of diabetes than most areas in the state outside of the Delta.

“This area is very heavily ridden,” he said. “It’s a big burden on people.”

Stueve, who runs a monthly diabetes support group at the hospital, said the disease does not discriminate, although it is known mostly for affecting senior citizens.

“I’m seeing new cases of diabetes coming from three year olds all the way up to 90 years old,” he said. “It’s affecting every age group.”

Stueve, who has been a diabetic since age 12, noted that the holiday season is the “most challenging time of the year” for diabetics.

“Everywhere you look, it’s sweet and high carbohydrate stuff like dressing and dumplings; everything we love,” he said. “Prevention is the main goal for diabetes because, once you get the problems, they’re there. The best prevention is just exercising and keeping your weight down.”

Julia Starrett is the Southern Regional Manager of the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi, a non-profit organization that distributes disease information statewide.

“Our mission is to fund research, provide services and education to people of all ages in Mississippi and send children with diabetes to camp,” she said. “Through our Helping Hands program, we provide medical supplies and medication to people with little to no insurance.”

Starrett said the Diabetes Foundation also offers a school program called Sweet Subject, which educates teachers and staff about diabetes.

“We tell them what it looks like and what to do if a child is experiencing symptoms,” she said. “We teach them how to handle the situation if a child has high or low blood sugar.”

Starrett noted that the organization also provides free screenings for churches and other groups that bring them in.

“People could be living with diabetes and be unaware,” she said. “We try to go to the smaller churches in outer areas where people don’t go to the doctor that often because they don’t have access to transportation.”

Starrett said there is a lot of confusion about what diabetes is.

“Basically, it’s when someone has high blood sugar,” she said. “When someone has diabetes, their body is either not producing insulin or not producing enough insulin to be efficient. You need insulin when you eat carbs or sugar. Your body turns that into energy.