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Diabetes is becoming more common in the United States, with approximately one million new
cases diagnosed each year.
Today, nearly 17 million Americans age 20 years or older have diabetes, including
individuals of nearly every race and ethnicity.
Diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not produce any insulin or produces very little
insulin, or when the body does not respond appropriately to insulin.
Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches, and other food into
energy.
The process of turning food into energy is crucial because the body depends on this energy for
every action, from pumping blood and thinking to running and jumping.
Although diabetes cannot be cured, it can be managed.
Some people control their diabetes by eating a balanced diet, maintaining a healthy body
weight, and exercising regularly.
Many individuals, however, must take oral medication and/or insulin to manage their
diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes.
When you have type 2 diabetes, the body does not respond correctly to insulin.
This is called insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance means that fat, liver, and muscle cells do not respond normally to insulin.
As a result blood sugar does not get into cells to be stored for energy.
Type 2 diabetes occurs gradually.
Most people with the disease are overweight at the time of diagnosis.
However, type 2 diabetes can also develop in those who are thin, especially the elderly.
Kay Pomeroy is a certified Diabetes educator.
A certified Diabetes educator is a health professional who has had extensive education and
experience working with diabetics helping them to learn the skills and knowledge they
need to manage their diabetes.
It can be a dietician, a nurse, a pharmacist, a physician, a pediatrist.
Any health professional who has taken additional training and education.
The certification requires passing a national exam.
And also ongoing training to maintain the certification.
Which does help to assure the client that they are receiving the most up to date information
from you.
Kay travels throughout the Midwest teaching people about Type 2 diabetes.
At the Henry Ford Village senior home in Dearborn, MI she is talking about stress and how
managing stress is an important tool in managing type 2 diabetes.
Definitely finding something that works for you.
And everyone is different in what they enjoy.
So finding an activity that works for you that helps you get your mind off all of the
problems that are stressing you.
That's very important.
Should you ever try to fix the problem?
Sure, but it depends on what the problem is right?
Obviously if it seems to be a physical problem you need to call your doctor and get an
appointment.
Maybe you need to go to urgent care.
If all of the sudden you get a temperature of 105 you need to do something right away.
But if it's not a physical problem.
It's an emotional, psychological problem...
you're irritated, something gone wrong...
Ten steps towards reducing emotional stress and the very first one is to find the cause
of your stress.
And if you think it's multiple problems you may want to get out a notepad and sort it out on
paper because sometimes it's more than one cause.
But if you can identify what's the biggest issue there.
Then lift out the parts is number two - Stress that's beyond your control.
Now don't you think that's probably the biggest thing right there?
Figuring out what you can control and what you can't?
That can be really difficult when you realize what's beyond your control.
It's not always easy to just let go of it.
It's not easy at all.
And while stress is a major factor when dealing with type 2 diabetes, it's not the only
factor.
Diet is considered the cornerstone of blood sugar management.
Particularly the carbohydrate in foods.
The total amount and how it's distributed throughout the day has the most impact on blood
sugar.
Second to that I really have to squeeze in something about exercise because that's really
as important as diet and certainly the persons physical activity level has a big
influence on what their diet planning should be for them for best blood sugar control.
So if diet becomes the number one factor in controlling diabetes, what specific diet
should you use?
That's a really good question because there is a lot of misinformation about diet for
diabetics among all of the good information that's out there.
There is no diabetic diet.
There are diet guidelines that help a diabetic manage their blood sugars better.
Carbohydrate will have the most impact on a person's blood sugar.
So having a moderate amount of carbohydrate distributed throughout the day and choosing
healthy carbohydrates is where we start with meal planning.
It's not a prescribed diet that everyone must follow.
Generally diabetics do not need to follow a low carbohydrate diet.
That's one of the biggest misconceptions.
A heart healthy diet, a moderate amount of carbohydrate or even a higher amount if they have
higher activity levels can be just fine.
But the biggest emphasis is healthy carbohydrates, the whole grains, legumes, fruit,
vegetables, getting plenty of fiber in the diet, the dairy products, low fat dairy products
or soy as an alternative is really the basis of meal planning.
With Diabetes being such a well-documented disorder - is there really a need for getting
training outside of your home?
A diabetic certainly can do well on their own to manage their blood sugars with the help of
their physicians and the many resources that are out there.
I feel it's helpful for them to go through a diabetes self-management program because
you can learn a lot more information about other topics that you may not get from the
Internet or books that you buy.
Topics such as how to best manage when you're traveling and you're off schedule, how to
manage when your under stress, if you're sick there are a lot of considerations there to keep
yourself safe and to prevent extremely high or low blood sugars.
Certainly for many diabetics they will learn from the other individuals in the classes that
they attend when they go to one of those programs and get the understanding and support from
other people who are dealing with the same issues that they are.
So it's beneficial from that standpoint and certainly for fine tuning the diet and being
aware of the changes that can take place over time.
Diabetes is considered a progressive condition or disorder meaning that the body
may over time produce less and less insulin or become more and more resistant to the insulin
that one makes.
And there may need to be changes in the treatment plan and if a person goes through an entire
series of classes they are much better prepared and aware and looking out for these changes so
that they can get help from their physician and change their treatment plan to stay in
control as needed.
If a person is having trouble finding their local program the can go on the American Dietetic
Association website, the American Diabetes Association website which have searches for
find a dietician or find a diabetes educator in your area.
That's one of the things that I'm involved in here at Wright and Filippis is providing
resources to individuals and giving information to where they can find additional help with