By Grace Lieberman, Cronkite News | Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020

PHOENIX Cooking equipment at the ready, Mallory Smith stands before a table loaded with fresh greens, nuts and fruit.

Has anyone used the apple slicer before? she asks the dozen people gathered this weekday morning at Native Health. Might take a little bit of practice.

Over the next hour, Smith chopped, mixed and scooped as she demonstrated how to make a chicken Waldorf salad as part of a new class to encourage diabetes-friendly cooking to help diabetics manage their blood sugar.

A lot of people in the Native American community and in the Phoenix community, they get diagnosed with diabetes but arent necessarily educated on it, Smith said. Having this class helps them find out what diabetes is, what kind of foods they can eat with diabetes, what can help them for their overall health.

Video by Jordan Elder/Cronkite News

The 20-week course, which is free and open to anyone, is held morning and evening every Thursday through June 4. Each week, Smith demonstrates a new recipe, and participants will go home with free groceries to replicate the dishes at home.

Food for Thought is part of Native Healths diabetes management program for the Native American community. Michelle Hill, a certified diabetes educator at Native Health, said the goal is to show patients that eating properly can be easy, accessible and economical.

More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. That includes 695,000 Arizonans or 12.5% of the adult population.

Both nationally and in Arizona, Native Americans have the highest rates of the disease, followed by blacks and Hispanics. More than 19% of adult Native Americans in the state have been diagnosed, the Arizona Department of Health Services reports.

Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which the body does not produce any insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar. In the more common type 2 diabetes, the body produces insulin but does not use it properly. Some people only need to maintain a healthy diet and exercise regimen to manage the disease, while others might need insulin injections or other medicines.

Michelle Hill, a registered dietician and certified diabetes educator, explains how to read nutrition labels at Native Health in Phoenix on Jan. 23. (Photo by Alicia Moser/Cronkite News)

In order to properly regulate their blood sugar, diabetics are cautioned against eating foods high in processed sugar, such as white bread, sugary cereals and flavored yogurt and drinks. Hill told participants they should not be afraid to eat the natural sugar found in whole fruits.

Glorene Barton learned about Food for Thought from her health care providers during a recent appointment at Native Health.

I was asking about snacks, because Im a diabetic and I forgot to bring a snack with me. So she told me about this class that might be interesting for me, Barton said. I learned a few different things about eating and grams and carbs and things of that nature. It was interesting.

Another participant, Marla Wilson, said her son motivates her to keep up with a healthy diet. She thought this program was a great opportunity to learn how.

I have a son whos very health-conscious. So Im sure hell like it, too, because we were just talking about eating more salads and the health benefit, Wilson said.

Hill kicked off the morning by providing some tips about managing diabetes. Participants learned they can test their bodies reaction to new foods by trying them over a few days, then checking their blood sugar levels two hours later each time.

The finished product: a chicken Waldorf salad made with fresh produce. (Photo by Alicia Moser/Cronkite News)

Then it was time to get cooking. Smith guided the group through the process of making the salad, explaining some basic knife work, how to substitute in healthy ingredients and portioning.

The ingredient that surprised people the most was nonfat yogurt, which was used along with lemon juice to dress the salad. Smith said yogurt is an excellent substitute for less healthful ingredients, such as sour cream.

At the end, participants were able to take home both dry goods and fresh produce funded by the Mobilize AZ project from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.

Being diabetic is a very expensive way of being, and so this is a plus, Wilson said. We get what we need to make our dinner tonight.

Added Barton: Its the learning thats more important to me. Im tired of eating the same thing all the time, so this is great.

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The rest is here:
Native Health offers cooking classes to address high rates of diabetes - Cronkite News

Published 1:00pm EST, Monday, February 3, 2020

Griffin Hospital will host a free discussion on diabetes and fall risk on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Griffin Hospital will host a free discussion on diabetes and fall risk on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Photo: Tierney Stock.adobe.com

Griffin Hospital will host a free discussion on diabetes and fall risk on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Griffin Hospital will host a free discussion on diabetes and fall risk on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Griffin to host discussion on diabetes and fall risk

The Diabetes Education & Support Group at Griffin Hospital will host a free discussion on diabetes and fall risk on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 2:30 p.m., at the hospital, 130 Division St., Derby.

Studies have shown that older adults diagnosed with diabetes have a higher risk of falling and fall more often. They are also more likely to suffer a serious injury from a fall, including a broken hip.

Lifeline Program Coordinator at Griffin Hospital Vanessa Shimer will talk about why individuals diagnosed with diabetes are at a higher fall risk and what they can do to help protect themselves from debilitating fall injuries.

No registration is required. For more information, call Mary Swansiger at 203-732-1137.

The Diabetes Education & Support Group meets September-June on the second Tuesday of each month to discuss the management of diabetes, challenges, and day-to-day dietary concerns. Individuals with diabetes and their caregivers are welcome to attend. The support group is part of Griffins ongoing effort to transform healthcare by not only treating illness, but also helping people stay healthy. Griffin actively empowers individuals to play an active role in their health and wellbeing by providing them with information, tools and support to prevent, or proactively manage chronic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, depression and stress.

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Griffin to host discussion on diabetes and fall risk - Shelton Herald

Proactive Diabetes Class will be held Feb. 11

GOSHEN A Proactive Diabetes Class will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 11 in the Home Care conference room at the Retreat, 1147 Professional Drive.

This class will assist people who have diabetes in their family and may be concerned about their risk and want to make a lifestyle change.

All are welcome. To register, call 574-364-2746 or visit GoshenHealth.com/Find-Events.

LAGRANGE Weathering the Storm in Agriculture: How to cultivate a productive mindset is an hour-long workshop for farmers and their families designed to help recognize and respond to signs of chronic stress in themselves and others.

The event will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. Feb. 26 at Parkview LaGrange Hospital, 207 N. Townline Road.

During the workshop, participants will learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of chronic stress; build skills to recognize and respond to mental health concerns; learn how to respond and where to go for more help and resources; and access resources for handling stress for a more productive mind set on the farm.

The presenters are Elysia Rodgers, Agricultural & Natural Resources educator, DeKalb County; and Brittney Schori, Health and Human Services educator, LaGrange County.

The workshop, Weathering the Storm in Agriculture, is made possible by a collaboration between the Purdue Extension and the Michigan State University Extension. It is funded by a community health improvement grant from Parkview LaGrange Hospital.

The program is free to farmers and their families, and class size is limited. Registration is required by Feb. 19. For additional information or to register, contact Christina Blaskie by calling 260-463-9420 or email her at christina.blaskie@parkview.com.

GOSHEN Goshen Physicians Family Medicine recently welcomed nurse practitioner Diana Marmolejos to the Lincoln Avenue practice.

According to Goshen Health officials, Marmolejos provides care for patients of all ages and works closely with a team of health care providers to offer care for issues such as the flu, an ear ache, and another common illness or a chronic condition, such as diabetes or heart disease.

"Diana shares our mission to provide a medical home for patients and help them actively participate in their health," Randy Christophel, Goshen Health president and chief executive officer, said.

Marmolejos is fluent in English and Spanish, which allows her to bridge communication barriers with patients and providers, the news release stated. Her nursing experience extends from emergency rooms and intensive care to non-urgent and primary care offices.

In addition to her nurse practitioner certification, Marmolejos holds a bachelor's degree and master of science degree in nursing from Goshen College.

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HEALTH BRIEFS: Proactive Diabetes Class will be held Feb. 11 - Goshen News

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) Fourteen-year-old Ben Cornell was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was ten years old. He's now advocating for research funding to find a cure for the autoimmune illness.

He will be among the guests attending Tuesday night's State of the Union Address after receiving an invite from Congressman Tom Reed.

"It's a struggle it's not very easy, and it's always like, there. You never really get a break," he said. "I didn't want to have it anymore, and just anything anybody can do to help it just makes us that much closer."

Supporting Cornell is Edward Dickey, Board President of the WNY chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. His daughter has type 1 as well.

"Thankfully there's technologies that have come along in the last ten years that have made life easier to live with but it is by no means a cure," he said. "Insulin is by no means a cure, we need to continue to fund research and try to find a cure for diabetes."

Another major issue type one diabetics face is insulin affordability. The price of the vital drug has skyrocketed over the last decade, leading people to crossing over the border to Canada to get it for a cheaper price, or more dangerously - rationing their insulin.

But Dickey is hopeful a cure will be found.

"In the last six months the Special Diabetes Program, the SDP, was approved by Congress and gave us $97 million over the last six moths to help find a cure for diabetes," he said.

Dickey said it's important to get a multi-year approval of that agreement so JDRF does not have to worry about research money.

More:
Local teen with type 1 diabetes invited to State of the Union Address - WKBW-TV

KEY POINTS

Type 2 diabetes is one of the conditions that could lead to many health issues when it is not kept under control. Accordingly, health experts have pinpointed that patients who dont know that they have diabetes end up suffering from a worse condition. Most of the time, their inability to treat the condition is because they also fail to recognize the symptoms.

Diabetes affects a lot of areas of health that it also manifests itself through a lot of symptoms. One of the symptoms that you need to watch out for will affect your mouth.

Dry Mouth

One of the signs of diabetes is having a dry mouth. Known as xerostomia in the medical field, this condition is characterized by the lack of saliva. According to Express, saliva plays a vital role in controlling the levels of bacteria in the mouth. It is also the one responsible for washing away the acid around the gums and teeth. mouth signs of type 2 diabetes Photo: silviarita - Pixabay

As per Diabetes.co.uk, those who have diabetes are more prone to suffer from a dry mouth because of high levels of glucose in their saliva and blood. Other possible causes of a dry mouth would be a number of medications, dehydration, and smoking.

Obviously, the lack of moisture from your mouth signals a dry mouth. However, there are still other symptoms that you must be aware of. Aside from lacking moisture, the corners of your mouth would get easily irritated. The gums also oftentimes suffer from inflammation.

More Dry Mouth Signs

If you have had a recent course of antibiotics, its possible that you will suffer from oral thrush. These are the fungal or yeast infections that would affect the cheeks and the tongue. You can find white patches appearing on your mouth if you have oral thrush. This is also a sign of dry mouth.

You may also suffer from redness of the tongue. Cracking of the corner of the lips, plus the skin, can also signal a dry mouth. These are among the symptoms that could lead to a lot of discomfort. Hence, to be able to arrest the condition, you also need to keep your blood sugar levels under control. You can do this by keeping an active lifestyle and eating healthy.

See more here:
Type 2 Diabetes: This Mouth Condition Can Be A Warning - International Business Times

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. The risk of going blind is all too real for diabetics but a WVU project is hoping to mitigate that risk for West Virginians.

The West Virginia Practice-Based Research Network is the organization behind trying to stop or limit diabetic retinopathy, or blindness as a result of diabetes. Stacey Whanger, the Networks assistant director said their work has been going on since 2016 and that they have been engaging primary care providers to offer a new screening for diabetic patients.

The patients that need the screenings from physicians are the ones that are not necessarily seen by an eye doctor, Whanger said, so theyre actually providing care to folks who may not have access to an early screening.

Its recommended that patients with diabetes have yearly eye exams because diabetic retinopathy starts very smallvery subtle changes so patients may not recognize that its happening until the disease is later in the stages, Whanger said. So its important to get that early screening done so then treatment can be provided earlier to the patient and hopefully have better success and save the sight as long as possible.

According to a WVU press release, it is projected that one in three Americans with diabetes will experience diabetic retinopathy by the year 2050. The projection may be frightening but early detection reduces the risk of severe vision loss by 90 percent.

Whanger said the project is also trying to reach out to diabetic patients from the moment when they are diagnosed with diabetes in order to get them in touch with an eye care specialist. The reason being that a regular doctor cannot treat diabetic retinopathy, they can only do an initial screening to see if the eyes are normal.

Moving forward, Whanger said, they are hoping to expand the project to more sites around the state.

We cover a good portion of areas around the state but were hoping to expand to other primary care sites to really deliver the care to patients that are not receiving their annual eye exams and to be able to provide that care to them, Whanger explained. We also are really creating a network across the state between eye care professionals and primary care providers so this could really extend to other diseases that have systematic and ophthalmic conditions and how it goes hand in hand. It just works as a nice partnership between all the different providers that a patient might come in contact with.

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WVU project works toward preventing blindness in diabetic patients - WBOY.com

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. A local teen activist is taking her fight for affordable diabetic medication to Washington.

Taylor Mckenny, 19, is attending the State of the Union Address as a guest of U.S. Representative Charlie Crist.

PINELLAS NEWS | The latest headlines from Pinellas County

Its hard. The cost for my medication keeps going up, said McKenny.

She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 9-years-old. She said her family has struggled, nearly going bankrupt to pay for her medication, which she cannot live without.

Sadly, McKenny isnt alone.

According to the health department, more than 2.3 million Floridians are living with diabetes, and more than half cannot afford their medication.

To have a financial burden like that is unconscionable, Rep. Crist said. The only reason or rational for jacking up the price is to make money. We have to take action to stop it.

Senate Bill 116 is aimed at capping the monthly cost for insulin at $100, regardless of the type or how much a patient needs.

Tampa Senator Janet Cruz introduced the bill this year, and it has bipartisan support.

Thats great news for McKenny, but she wants to see this done on a national scale.

Im going to be moving out to state. Its gong to be hard to pay for rent, bills, and my medication. I also want to go to school, she said.

McKenny plans to talk to lawmakers at Tuesday's State of the Union Address.

I want them to know how difficult it is for people like me, she said.

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Tampa Bay teen takes fight for affordable diabetic medicine to the State of The Union - ABC Action News

A large multi-study review found that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are likely to provide protective effects from cardiovascular (CV) events in patients with type 2 diabetes, regardless of established CV disease (CVD).

Previous studies have underscored the benefit of SGLT2 inhibitors in those with type 2 diabetes and CVD, but whether that protective effect extended across other patient subsets had been unclear.

In the review and meta-analysis, which was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the researchers pooled data from 4 clinical trials to evaluate the CV benefits and the effects on key safety outcomes of SGLT2 inhibition in both patients with and without established CVD, reduced kidney function, or heart failure (HF).

Overall, the studies included 38,723 patients with type 2 diabetes and assessed 3 SGLT2 inhibitors: canagliflozin, empagliflozin, and dapagliflozin.

Of the patients, 59% had CVD, 20% had reduced kidney function, and 12% had HF. There were 3828 major adverse cardiac event (MACE) outcomes, 1192 hospitalizations for HF, 1506 CV deaths, and 2612 deaths from any cause.

All patient subgroups benefited from SGLT2 inhibition.

Overall, the results showed:

The authors noted that the magnitude of protection achieved may vary across patients, but the available evidence does not identify a patient group that is unlikely to achieve significant CV protection from use of SGLT2 inhibitors.

Based on these findings, the study authors wrote, Our results call for a reevaluation of current guideline recommendations for SGLT2 inhibitor therapy, with a view to include those with and without established CVD.

In this meta-analysis of large event-driven SGLT2 inhibitor outcome trials we found SGLT2 inhibitors protected against cardiovascular disease and death in diverse subsets of patients with type 2 diabetes regardless of their cardiovascular disease history, lead author Dr Clare Arnott, Senior Research Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, said in a press release.

While the extent of this protective effect may vary across patient types, the consistency of the findings suggests significant and broad cardiovascular protection can be achieved from use of this drug class.

View post:
SGLT2 Inhibitors Show CV Benefit in All Patients with Type 2 Diabetes - Drug Topics

M. May Zhang, PharmD Candidate

However, weight is a dynamic measure, and trajectories vary over time. Little is known about how onset time or cumulative exposure to obesity impact diabetes risk. Now, a recent study published in Diabetologia shows that diabetes risk is associated with younger age at onset of obesity, and longer exposure to obesity.2

Researchers used data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Womens Health, a population-based analysis of Australian women studying the effect of various factors on health. Over 19 years, they gathered data from 11,192 initially diabetes-free women aged 18-23 years, focusing on BMI and incidence of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers identified 6 BMI trajectories, which varied by baseline BMI and rate of increase. Women who were initially overweight or obese, or became so over the course of the study, had a significantly increased risk of developing diabetes.

However, the data also showed that cumulative exposure to obesity increased diabetes risk. The researchers measured exposure using obese-years, which account for both duration and magnitude of obesity. A higher number of obese-years, indicating more cumulative exposure, was positively associated with diabetes. Women with less than 10 obese years were 2.18 times more likely to develop diabetes, while women with 30 or more years were 5.88 times more likely.

Researchers also found a negative association between age at onset of obesity and diabetes risk. This may be because women with early-onset obesity are likely to have a longer duration of obesity, thus increasing cumulative exposure. Additionally, obesity at a young age may have more impact on insulin resistance.

Women with rapidly increasing BMIs were more at risk than women with stable trajectories. Normal weight subjects classified as rapid increasers were more likely to develop diabetes than their stable weight counterparts. Likewise, overweight and obese rapid increasers were more at risk than the baseline-only overweight and obese groups.

This study sheds new light on the importance of obesity timing and exposure in young women. Early-onset obesity should be considered an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Over half of the cohort experienced a rapid BMI increase in young adulthood, highlighting this age group as a population that should be routinely counseled about weight management.

Health care providers should encourage these patients to monitor their weight and weight change over time to prevent early-onset and rapid-increase obesity. Not only preventing obesity, but even delaying age at onset and reducing exposure, may significantly decrease diabetes incidence.

REFERENCES

Excerpt from:
Increased Diabetes Risk Due to Age at Onset of Obesity and Cumulative Exposure - Pharmacy Times