Hernando Today
Email
Print
Hernando Today > Life > Health
Fighting An Epidemic
Concerns rise with increase in diabetic population.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: February 1, 2008
One out of every 15 people in Hernando County has diabetes — an increase of 5 percent since 2001. And those are just the self-reported cases. Whether it's a relative, a friend or a neighbor, everyone knows someone who either has diabetes or has been touched by it. The growing numbers are cause for concern.
Nationwide diabetes has reached epidemic proportions. The most recent study done by the American Diabetes Association shows the cost of diabetes is going through the roof. Current estimates show it costs Americans $174 billion dollars a year, up an unsettling 32 percent since 2002. "I think it's a social problem, I think it's a clinical problem. I think it's an environmental problem," says Kristin Landry, chief government officer for Green Ribbon Health. Green Ribbon Health is a new Florida based company formed by Humana Inc. and Pfizer Health Solutions. Landry and her team have been involved in a 2-year pilot program with Medicare and Medicaid in Tampa Bay and other gulf cost communities to the south to provide support services to pre-selected beneficiaries with diabetes and other chronic diseases.
"I hate to quote a presidential candidate, but it takes a village to raise a child and I would say it takes the same to contend with diabetes, says Landry. "It's a scary disease that currently has no cure. It's something you'll have for the rest of your life and it impacts you on the most basic and complex level."
It's not just the increasing number of diabetes cases that concerns Dr. Kelli Maw, Executive Health Director at the Hernando Country Health Dept. It's also the shift in the diabetic population. "It used to be pretty cut and dried. If you were young, under the age of 40, most likely you would have Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes. People who were older tended to get more Type 2 diabetes. Now the lines tend to get blurred," says Maw. "Here in the clinic we see people who are of a younger age developing Type 2 diabetes. Very often they will have other problems as well like hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol, younger people, even children.
Many people don't realize they have diabetes because the early symptoms seem harmless. They include frequent urination, excessive thirst, extreme hunger, unusual weight loss, increased fatigue, irritability and blurry vision. Even together, many people would not necessarily associate these symptoms with diabetes. But the earlier it's detected, the better the chances of keeping it under control. In fact doctors can now identify a patient with pre-diabetes.
"Pre-diabetics usually have blood sugar between 100, 110, 115, in that range. 126 is the diagnosis for diabetes," says diabetes nutrition educator. Sandra Dixon. Dixon and her team at the Hernando County Health Department offer a multi disciplinary, 12-hour course to help people learn to control the disease. One of the first things she does is explain how it works.
"The glucose has to get into the body's cells and when you have diabetes, the glucose is not entering the cells at the same rate so it's building up in the blood stream. But how it enters those cells can be different from one person to the next. So you and I can both have
Type 2 diabetes. We both eat exactly the same meal. We can check our blood sugar before we eat. We can check our blood sugar 2 hours after we ate and you would think if we ate the same meal we should be able to predict by how many points that blood sugar would go up. But we can't because your cells may take in the glucose faster than mine do. "
Learning how that process works in each patient is the key to keeping diabetes under control and avoiding the complications like blindness, loss of limbs and heart disease. "Education is an important treatment," says Dixon. "It is one of the illnesses that the person themselves have more control over their outcome than really their doctor do. If you don't understand the illness and know how to manage it, it can control you."
Dixon and Maw both run group programs with differences. Their populations are different. Dixon's is a diabetes self-management program. The participants pay a $35 fee. Maw's is clinic based. All of them are patients and most have no health insurance. It's run by a team put together by Maw. It's is part of a federally funded initiative where the patients not only learn how to control their disease, they are actively monitored.
What they have in common is that in addition to much needed education, the patients also get support and they learn from each other. "We make it interactive. It's not just our staff talking to the patients untill their eyes glaze over, says Maw. "Ultimately our goal is that the patient is the one that calls the shots. They decide how many pounds they're going to lose between now and the next visit. They're going to decide how they're going to deal with their blood pressure – what approach they're going to use. It's the patient taking charge."
Says Dixon, "We want to be able to interact with people because they have so many questions. And it's just like, I could do a program on healthy eating with diabetes but until you get to ask me your specific question – how it's going to work for you and until you learn what these foods do to your blood sugar by testing later after you eat – it's too general."
Though they are different programs, both are showing measurable success. The Green Ribbon program is still underway but it too is showing success. All are demonstrating that a multi disciplinary educational approach may be the best solution for coping with the diabetes epidcemic.
Next week we visit both programs and see exactly how and why they are working.
Virginia Diaz writes regularly for the Hernando Today Health Today section. She lives in Brooksville and can be contacted at virginia.diaz61@gmail.com.
To Learn More
For more information on diabetes and treatments visit:
American Diabetes Association
www.diabetes.org
Hernando County Health Department:
352-540-6800, Ext. 82129 (Brooksville), Ext. 82022 (Spring Hill)
www.doh.state.fl.us/chdHernando
Virginia Diaz writes regularly for the Hernando Today Health Today section. She lives in Brooksville and can be contacted at virginia.diaz61@gmail.com.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
