Fresno County has been awarded a five-year, multimillion-dollar
federal grant to reduce chronic illness, including heart disease,
stroke and diabetes.
The county was one of 61 communities nationwide to receive a
Community Transformation Grant. Nationwide, $103 million has been
set aside for the public health initiative.
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.
Do you know your risk for diabetes? Perhaps you have diabetes and
don’t even know it. One out of 10 Californians has diabetes,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). Diabetes is a chronic medical condition characterized by
high levels of blood glucose (a form of sugar). Nearly 2 million
California adults have diabetes, about 8%of the state’s
population, according to a recent study from the UCLA Center for
Health Policy Research.
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.
If you’re one of the 12.2 million Americans age 60-plus with
diabetes, the American Diabetes Association and the American
College of Sports Medicine have a new prescription for you.
An exercise prescription.
The first guidelines for physical activity that are aimed
specifically at diabetics have been released jointly by the two
organizations.
MERCED — When Palee Moua teaches Hmong elders how to manage
adult-onset diabetes, she usually starts with a metaphor.
As the director of cultural services at the Merced-based Healthy
House, she might relate tackling diabetes to crossing a
treacherous river, like the Hmong did during the Vietnam War when
they fled to Thailand after the Communist invasion of Laos. Those
who stayed behind and chose not to make the change might have
found it easier at first, but then they risked injury or death.
She says choosing to ignore or deal with diabetes is a similar
choice with similar consequences.
Rates of diabetes and severe obesity are about one-fifth lower
for women who relocated to high-income communities from
low-income areas compared with women who did not, according to
a study published in the New England Journal of
Medicine, CNN reports.
Diabetes is a tough chronic disease for many patients to manage,
but it’s even harder for those with mental illnesses.
Two UCSF graduate nursing students are trying to get people who
have a mental health diagnosis and are either diabetic or are at
high risk of developing diabetes to better understand the disease
and what to do to stay healthy.
“You can’t just tell a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic to
organize his blood sugar log,” said Shawna Mitchell Sisler, a
registered nurse studying to be a nurse practitioner. Techniques
used by patients to monitor their disease, she explained, may not
necessarily work for those with severe emotional or mental issues
who may be homeless or have addiction problems.
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.
Each year, between 4 percent and 8 percent of all pregnant women
in the United States are diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The
condition is found in women who have never had diabetes but whose
blood sugar, or glucose, levels are elevated during pregnancy.
Health care providers in California increasingly are focusing on
ways to manage patients’ chronic health conditions by using
team-based initiatives to engage patients in their own health,
HealthyCal
reports.
More than 16 million Californians, or 44% of the state’s
population, have chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart
disease or obesity. About half of them have more than one such
condition.
Forty years ago, Americans could expect to live slightly longer
than Europeans. This since has reversed: In spite of similar
levels of economic development, Americans now live about a
year-and-a-half less, on average, than their Western European
counterparts and also less than people in most other developed
nations. How did Americans fall behind?
A study in the July [2011] issue of Social Science & Medicine
is the first to calculate the fiscal consequences of the growing
life expectancy gap over the next few decades. The study also
pinpoints the crucial age at which life expectancy in the United
States starts to deteriorate.
Unhealthy foods so accessible that distance from
schools makes little difference
June 15, 2011 — A child’s risk for becoming overweight or obese
does not seem to increase when fast food establishments and
stores are located near school grounds, a new study finds.
More than one-third of all California public school students ages
12 to 17 do not participate in physical education classes despite
state requirements, according to new research.
A study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that
about 1.3 million public middle and high school students aren’t
getting school-based exercise, even though California law
mandates they get 400 minutes of physical education every 10
days. The research, based on 2007 statewide health survey data,
shows the average number of days adolescents participate in
physical education each week ranges from 1.8 days in Santa Cruz
County to 3.8 days in Madera County.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For babies at higher risk of
childhood diabetes because of family history or genes, a
gluten-free diet in the first year of life does not lower the
chances of developing the disease, German researchers report.
The findings undercut previous studies, including work from the
same scientists, suggesting that babies exposed to gluten as part
of their early diet might be more likely to develop type 1
diabetes later in childhood.
Latinos have higher rates of diabetes than other ethnic groups.
They also appear to have higher rates of having both diabetes and
a mood disorder, such as anxiety or depression, according to a
new study presented this week [May 20, 2011] at the American
Psychiatric Assn.’s annual meeting.
Men who drink a lot of coffee might feel a bit jittery or
high-strung, but those side effects may come with a hidden
benefit: prostate health.
According to a new study, drinking six or more cups of coffee per
day can lower a man’s risk of fatal prostate cancer by up to 60
percent.
A decreased risk of cancer was seen in men regardless of whether
they drank decaf or caffeinated, which suggests that the benefit
may come from a property in coffee other than caffeine,
researchers say.
Taking the diabetes drug Actos every day reduced the chance of
developing Type 2 diabetes by two-thirds in people whose obesity,
ethnicity, family history and other factors put them at high risk
of developing the disease, researchers said [March 23, 2011].
In a study of more than 600 high-risk patients, only 2.1% of
those who took Actos, known generically as pioglitazone,
progressed to diabetes each year over the three years of the
study, compared with 7.6% of those who took a placebo, according
to the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
SACRAMENTO – March 21, 2011 – Californians for Patient Care urges
adults in California to take the Diabetes Risk Test, as part of
Diabetes Alert Day tomorrow, March 22. The test, which requires
answers to a series of health questions, can help people
understand their risk of diabetes, including the 79 million
Americans that already have prediabetes.
“Californians for Patient Care believes strongly in the value of
preventive care and this Diabetes Risk Test is one of the easiest
preventive tools to use,” said Carmella Gutierrez, president of
Californians for Patient Care. “By taking a few minutes to answer
the questions on the test – which is located on our website
(www.calpatientcare.org/diabetes-and-you)
people can get invaluable information on whether or not they
might be at risk for type 2 diabetes. Early diagnosis and
treatment of diabetes can keep you from getting type 2 diabetes
or or prevent the disease and some of its complications, like
heart disease, blindness, kidney disease and stroke.”
