Diabetes Health Talk

Black people are 1.8 times as likely to develop diabetes as whites. Diabetics are more likely to experience greater disability from complications such as amputations, blindness, kidney failure and increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

According to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, an estimated 23.6 million people have diabetes. And 5.7 million of those have not been diagnosed.

Blacks, poor often live in one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the country, understands that they face additional challenges with their diagnoses.

Cost Of Diabetes

One such man, Hill. He is black. He is also unemployed during one of the toughest economic times, some say, since the Depression.

Hill, a former salesman, found assistance through a non-profit organization called Care Alliance that provides health and educational services.

Because of his employment status, he is eligible for free health care services.

“They are open and kind,” he says about the Care Alliance staff. “They bend over backward to make sure I have the medication. They suggest new medications and tell me about the side effects.”

Resources To Help Diabetics

Matt Sebastian, an educator with the Diabetes of Association of Greater Cleveland, said informing the communities most affected by diabetes often has it challenges.

People at a greater risk for diabetes include people who over 45, overweight, have family history and those who do not exercise.

Sebastian says while his message includes about symptoms and at-risk factors, he also informs citizens that there are agencies and resources to help.

DAGC provides grocery store tours, free glucose meters and strips, guest speakers, cooking sessions and group meetings of DAGC Divas — women diagnosed with the disease.

“It’s peer pressure in a positive way,” he says about DAGC Divas. “In this group, everyone has diabetes. They can help each other. It’s peer-to-peer motivation.”

Sebastian says that on his grocery store tours, he teaches pre-diabetics, diabetics and at-risk diabetics how to shop.

“Some inner city stores don’t make it easy,” he said. “They have pop three for $3. That’s a lot of liquid for a little money.”

Additionally, he says he encourages people to buy fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables and to pay a little more for whole-grain pasta.

About 11 to 18 genes can help predict a person’s likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, two new studies say. However, those genes don’t add much more to a patient’s diabetes-risk profile than information that’s easily available, such as body mass index, family history, and lifestyle, according to the studies in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The studies included more than 20,000 men and women who were followed for 20 to 30 years to see if they developed diabetes. In both studies, the gene variants’ predictive effect was more powerful for younger people.

However, experts say that genetic testing is probably not very useful in young adults, and probably not in children either. (The studies did not include kids.)

It’s not clear how much genetic testing of children would cost, says Richard Hellman, MD, an endocrinologist in North Kansas City, Mo., who was not involved in the new research. Plus, diabetes is a complex disorder and even testing for a dozen or so genetic variants may not be all that helpful.

“As many as 500 genotypic variants are at play in the development of type 2 diabetes; it’s usually not a single one,” he says. “Lots of factors are playing a role.”

Although more research is needed about type 2 diabetes and children, the disease is still relatively rare in kids, says John Buse, MD, director of the Diabetes Care Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. “It would be hard to justify massive screening without a specific trial in that regard.”

For now, the studies seem to have little application in the real world. The findings are “too premature” to help individual people figure out their own risk, according to Dr. Lyssenko.

However, Dr. Hellman still sees it as good news for patients. “It says that there’s much more that we can do to change the course,” he says. “It isn’t just, ‘This is your genotype and this is your destiny.’”

Dr. Lyssenko agrees. “We may not be able to change our genes, but genes only work in concert with the environment, and we can change the environment; we can still improve our future by healthy diet and exercise.”

Diabetics who tightly control their blood sugar _ even if only for the first decade after they are diagnosed _ have lower risks of heart attack, death and other complications 10 or more years later, a large follow-up study has found.

The discovery of this ‘legacy effect’ may put new emphasis on rigorous treatment when people first learn they have Type 2 diabetes, the most common form and the type linked to obesity.

Doctors warn that people should not let their blood sugar spin out of control _ that could have serious health consequences.

‘What you don’t want is for people to think that they had a period of good glucose control and then they allow their blood glucose to go high _ that would be disadvantageous,’ said Dr. Stephen Davis, head of Vanderbilt University’s diabetes and endocrinology division, who had no role in the study.

Results were published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine and were being presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Rome.

Diabetes affects more than 18 million Americans. Most have Type 2, which occurs when the body makes too little insulin or cannot use what it does produce. Being overweight raises this risk.

Researchers led by Dr. Rury Holman at the University of Oxford in England originally studied 4,209 newly diagnosed diabetes patients assigned to manage their blood sugar either through standard diet restrictions or medicines. In the drug group, most took sulfonylurea, which prompts the pancreas to release more natural insulin into the bloodstream. Overweight diabetics took metformin, sold in the United States as Glucophage. Treatment lasted on average 10 years.

That study showed intensive blood sugar control lowered the risks of eye disease and kidney damage, but did not find any significant difference in heart attack risk except in the overweight group taking metformin. Those results led to guidelines recommending tight blood sugar control still in wide use today.

The follow-up study was on 3,277 participants who were tracked for an average of 10 more years _ first in clinics, where blood sugar could be measured, and through questionnaires in the later years.

So, what’s your status? How are you doing tonight?

Sometimes it is good to just sit back and think about the day - what part we had in certain outcomes - what part we did NOT play in the same outcomes - what we can do better tomorrow.

It’s a life thing!

Statistics is a major part of my workaday world. When you work for a non-profit agency, no matter WHICH non-profit agency, stats can be the bread and butter.

They can also be frustrating - mainly because of the time it takes to gather them - and how long before they can be published - you are always a year or two behind the times, so to speak.

So the fact that this following graph is from 2005 won’t be a big surprise, now, will it?
click for a larger size

This is a screen print from the National Diabetes Association - statistics page. It shows a projection from 2002 into 2005 of the percentage of adults in the US who have either been diagnosed or will be diagnosed with diabetes.

Total Prevalence of Diabetes in the United States, All Ages, 2005
Total: 20.8 million people—7 percent of the population—have diabetes.
Diagnosed: 14.6 million people
Undiagnosed: 6.2 million people

According the the graphed data, nearly 25% of the 60+ age group will have diabetes. That is a bit frightening to me - especially since I am nearing that magical age group.

Hubby was actually first diagnosed when he was 25 years old.

No, I don’t know what to do with the statistics - just keep on educating myself, I guess. Try to make lifestyle changes in ME so that I don’t become one of the statistics. That’s probably all anyone can ask of themself, right?

Right! Have a wonderful day - be good to yourself - walk an extra lap or two around the office - and pass up on the jelly rolls, okay?

diabetes, statistics, education

According to a publication distributed by the National Diabetes Education Program, here are some eye-opening statistics:

* American Indians and Alaska Natives on average are 2.2 times more likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.
* About 15.1 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives aged twenty years and older and receiving care from the Indian Health Service (IHS) have diabetes.
* Diabetes is least common among Alaska Nationce (8.1 percent) and most common among American Indians in the southern U.S. and southern Arizona (26.7 percent and 27.6 percent respectively).

I’m not quite sure what to make of the stats - but my workaday world is surrounded by stats, so they stuck out at me while I was browsing the ndep site. I also live in Alaska, so those particular stats caught my eye.

I guess I am wondering, too, why these culture groups were picked out - and it may be that they are just one among many and I just stumbled upon this particular flyer. (again the link to Alaska)

The information contained in the flyer is generic - the methods of fighting the disease are the same as any other people group. (lose weight, eat right, exercise, etc.)

It’s possible that with any other series of publications - line them all up in an office or on a display table and the person who fits that particular group (women, natives, etc.) will gravitate toward the publication that fits them. So, I see the sense in it.

But those stats just disturb me. I guess I am wondering WHY Alaska natives have this incidence of diabetes. I’m also wondering whether the Alaska natives represented in this group of stats live in the bush, in barren villages, or if they are city dwellers. Do they have medical resources nearby or do they have to wait for a traveling medical professional to come to their village? Does the Indian Health Service adequately provide information in the native language(s) and dialects?

It all boils down to education, doesn’t it?

We just need to keep teaching ourselves - and our kids - and our grandkids - and those around us who we love.

We need to educate ourselves.

That’s why sites such as the National Diabetes Education Program can be such a wealth of information and help to us all.

According to the American Diabetes Association website, Undiagnosed Diabetes in U.S. Men Falls Sharply.

I hope you will read the entire article which was posted on the 14th. You might wonder why I titled this entry as I did. Please, consider this quote from the article:

“Some disparities remain. For example, less-educated men are far more likely to have their diabetes remain undiagnosed than better-educated men, the study found.”

Now, I may be incorrect in my deductions here . . .

(more…)

Hello All!

Today I found somethings that I felt many be reader worthy! In a report from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists the statistics show that 27.8% of people with type 2 Diabetes get Chronic Kidney Disease compared to the 6.1% of people who have normal blood sugar. Also that 22.9% of people with Type 2 diabetes get complication of the feet compared to the 10% of people with normal sugar levels.

Also that health care costs cause people with Type 2 Diabetes to pay on average annually $7-8,000 dollars more then people without elevated sugar levels.

So what can we do about these large differences? I have decided to talk a bit about prevention of complications in Type 2 Diabetes. Also Tomorrow I plan to talk about the warning signs and symptoms of Chronic Kidney Disease.

Prevention Tips:

1. Keep your sugar level under control: reasonable sugar levels are around
80-120.

2. Checking you levels regularly and taking you medication: It helps to take your medication at the same time each day.

3. Checking you feet daily: one of the first things to show problems so it is important to look for sores, cracking of the skin, cuts that wont heal.

The key to prevention is tight control of sugar levels, if you find that your sugar is not under control please contact your regular physician. Improving our sugar levels is key to improving our overall health!

Below are some links to help you research this topic:

Read the statistics on the PDF at:

www.mendedhearts.org

The American Diabetes Association:

This site is filled with tips on prevention, and facts about diabetes.

www.diabetes.org

Until next time!
Smiles,
Lisa