If you were to do a series of online searches on Diabetes Awareness symbols, chances are that you’d encounter just what we have: confusion. There truly are several symbols out there that represent diabetes awareness. Some are more popular than others, however, and that’s what we’re hoping to do with this brief list: to show you three of the most commonly identified symbols so that you too can join in the fight against diabetes.

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1. A grey ribbon with a drop of red

The drop of red is meant to symbolize the blood used to test blood sugar. In general, this ribbon tends to be the most popular of the three within the United States, as it has been around the longest.

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What’s our favorite way to show to demonstrate our diabetes awareness? We really like to:

Sock It to Diabetes!

Sometimes we’ll wear one blue sock with one grey sock. Or one orange, and one blue. Well, you get the picture.

You can help us Sock It To Diabetes.

Find out how right here!  

2. A blue circle

As an attempt to unify the fight against diabetes, the United Nations (UN) introduced the blue circle in 2006. Blue, according to diabetesbluecircle.org, “…reflects the color of the sky and the flag of the United Nations,” while the circle is meant to symbolize unity.

3. An orange ribbon

This is an example of where things become tricky. We’ve seen some instances where blue has been the chosen color for Juvenile Diabetes, and not solid orange. We’ve also seen grey. However, orange does happen to represent the majority here.