EXCLUSIVE: Naked Attraction presenter Anna Richardson has opened up about the health news she was given last year and the changes she’s implemented into her life
Naked Attraction host Anna Richardson has opened up about the stigma behind her health condition which highly affects her family.
The telly presenter, 54, spoke exclusively to Daily Star as she collaborated with Abbott to share their Above the Bias campaign.
Anna spoke to us in conjunction with Abbott’s new research which highlighted ongoing misconceptions that people with diabetes regularly encounter may be affecting their health.
Data from a survey of people living with diabetes across eight countries, including the UK, shows that they may not be getting the care they need due to the shame and stigma around their condition, which can lead to real and often unnoticed health consequences.
Anna exclusively said to us: “Part of this is personal for me, because there’s a lot of diabetes in my family. So my father has type two diabetes. My mother has just developed type two diabetes as well. And so this is something that that’s been sort of knocking around my family for a while, and I wasn’t aware of this, these statistics either, until I started working with with Abbott, just how prevalent it is.
“So we do know that one in five people have diabetes or pre diabetes in the UK, I am one of those people. So if you have got that genetic factor in your family, then obviously you’re more likely to develop it.
“And smashing headlong into middle age and into menopause, I’ve always been absolutely fine. My blood sugars have always been fine. But then when I went for an annual health check, and this was probably this time last year, my doctor started to say, ‘Your sugars little bit high. So if you’re not careful, and if you don’t, don’t start making some lifestyle changes, then you are at risk of developing diabetes, like your dad and like my mum has done’. So, suddenly that became a real concern for me.
“So I’m very interested in terms of health programmes and I like to tackle taboo. I like to tackle stigma. And I didn’t realize that there was such a strong stigma attached to people that have diabetes, and as one of those people, it’s something that I wanted to highlight.”
Abbott’s latest findings in the UK show that, 61% of people living with diabetes surveyed say they feel stigma when socialising around food and drink. More than a quarter (28%) say they feel conscious of eating more food than others, while one in five (22%) claims to have heard negative comments about their food choices while dining out.
Anna touched upon this and said: “Abbott have discovered they’ve done a survey around this and there’s a lot of stigma attached around type two diabetes and shame because it’s associated wrongly with just being overweight and eating too much and eating the wrong food.
“And we do know that people with type two diabetes, that there’s a high proportion of people that don’t engage with it, and they’re not going to the doctor to manage it, and this is a condition that can be managed.
“So people not doing that, this is, this is a big problem because of the shame that they feel around it, which is awful really, because it’s a situation and a health condition that’s poorly understood, and that goes from the patient point of view, and also society as a whole.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
