November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Events are taking place around the country and in Montgomery County to bring attention to diabetes, to give people guidance on prevention and treatment, and to highlight the progress researchers are making to combat the disease.
Adventist Healthcare Event
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, Adventist Healthcare will hold a virtual event, called ‘Defining Diabetes’. It will run from noon to 1:00 p.m. A primary care doctor and a diabetes educator associated with the healthcare system will answer questions and provide advice.
Dr. Wayne Meyer is the medical director for Primary Care with Adventist Medical Group. He has practiced medicine for nearly 40 years and said the explosion in diabetes cases is very troubling.
He hopes people who attend the virtual seminar will learn more about the complexity of the disease.
“What you don’t know about diabetes can hurt you. So the idea is the more you know, the more aware you will be, and the more prepared you will be to both prevent and or treat your own diabetes,” Meyer said.
Growing Problem
The number of Americans living with diabetes is growing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates about 38 million Americans have the disease. That is equal to one in ten Americans.
“Diabetes is an epidemic in our country. I understand November is Diabetes Awareness Month, but it should be Diabetes Year or Diabetes Every Day. It is an incredibly important problem, and we should be doing a lot more for it,” Meyer said.
He added diabetes is the most important disease doctors treat on a day to day basis, and he said the problem is getting worse not better. Meyer said part of why diabetes has reached this stage is linked to another problem Americans face, which is obesity.
“Unfortunately, obesity makes it more likely a person will develop diabetes,” Meyer said.
Prevention and Recognizing Symptoms
He said maintaining a healthy weight and exercising regularly can help ward off the disease. Diabetes often develops over time, and millions of Americans may not even realize they have the condition. Meyer said some telltale symptoms of diabetes include if a person experiences an unexplained and sudden drop in weight, unusual fatigue, and frequent urination. He said people should then get tested to determine their blood sugar level.
“Sugar in your body is incredibly important. Your brain functions best on sugar, all of your muscles function best on sugar. But if your sugar is too high, that also ends up being toxic to other areas of the body. Routinely diabetes affects your eyes, your kidneys, your blood vessels, your heart, and your nerves,” Meyer said.
Treating Diabetes
Once a person is diagnosed with diabetes, he or she will have the disease for the rest of their lives. Patients can control their diabetes with medication, diet and exercise. However, once the disease appears, it stays in a person’s body, even if their blood sugar level returns to normal.
“It’s a disorder of your metabolism and a person cannot quite turn it off. You can make it much, much less but it is hard,” Meyer said.
There are medicines available to control a person’s blood sugar level for people with Type 2 diabetes. Some well- known medicines include Metformin, Mounjaro, and Jardiance. However, patients with Type 1 diabetes will need insulin to balance their blood sugar level and some Type 2 diabetes patients also may need insulin.
Importance of Diet and Exercise
While medicines and treatments are much better now than when Meyer first started practicing, he said the number of diabetes cases is much more prevalent today. Meyer said he began preaching to patients about the importance of diet and exercise decades ago, and now the data exists to back up his theories. He remains hopeful the country can get diabetes under control, but he says the country first must address its obesity problem.
People interested in attending Tuesday’s virtual seminar can get more information here.
