Diabetes and You

Your body changes most of the food you eat into glucose (a form of sugar). Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows glucose to enter all the cells of your body and be used as energy. You have diabetes when your body doesn’t make enough insulin or it doesn’t use insulin properly.

Before people develop Type 2 diabetes, they almost always have pre-diabetes, which means their blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Recent research has shown that some long term damage to the body, especially the heart and circulatory system, may already be underway during pre-diabetes. There are 57 million Americans with pre-diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Though the new guidelines don’t differ greatly from the last recommendations, there’s a greater sense of urgency as the majority of American adults and one in three children are deemed overweight or obese.

WASHINGTON — New federal dietary guidelines released Jan. 31, 2011, urge Americans to avoid oversized portions, choose products that are lower in sodium, opt for water instead of sugary drinks and eat more fruits and vegetables — half a plateful.

The guidelines are not radically different from the last version, released in 2005, but come with a sense of urgency driven by growing rates of obesity, diabetes and other diet-linked health problems among Americans.

Project Dulce, a 15-year effort to fight diabetes in San Diego County’s Latino population, is getting national attention for delivering solid results.

The project combats diabetes by recruiting counselors from the community to work directly with patients, changing eating habits, exercise routines and a host of other factors that can reverse the chronic disease before it results in painful consequences.

Exercise is at the forefront in the prevention, control and treatment of diabetes. As we approach American Diabetes Awareness Month in November, the San Diego-based American Council on Exercise offers some practical advice for individuals with diabetes who want to increase their level of physical activity.

There is a right way and a wrong way to embark on an exercise program, according to ACE . For the nearly 26 million children and adults with diabetes in the United States, that distinction is even greater.

Hundreds of hopeful and needy people received free dental services at Cal Expo on Friday [August 24, 2012] in what’s become a dubious tradition in this do-without economy: another big-tent, M*A*S*H-style health care bonanza, this time exclusively for oral care.

Inside Cal Expo’s cavernous buildings C and D, the California Dental Association assembled a cadre of volunteer dentists and their crews for what’s called CDA Cares, a two-day free clinic that concludes today. Organizers said they hoped to serve 1,500 to 2,000 people by closing time, having seen 1,000 people Friday.

Did you know that Stater Brothers Super RX Pharmacy will give you some diabetes medications for free?

To walk into the central gathering space of the Potawot Health Village in Arcata, a multi-tribal health clinic, is to be made instantly aware of the concept of traditional native food as medicine. “Got Acorns?” reads a poster. “Got salmon?” “Got seaweed?” 

Built, administered and owned by American Indians, Potawot is at the front line of a national resurgence among native peoples to address the link between the loss of ancestral native foods and disproportionate rates of diabetes and other chronic diseases.