John Carter Community Trends

John Carter

HLTH 100

26 March 2013

Community Trends

I contacted Brenda Ralls, an epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health. She works specifically for the Utah Diabetes Prevention and Control Program. This organization is important to me because I am a type-1 diabetic. Brenda informed me on the issues she and her colleagues face as they battle type-1, type-2 and gestational diabetes.

Online support groups are trending right now. There seems to be a lot more interest in doing things online,  including diabetes self-management education classes. My opinion is that this is popular because it is easier to talk about personal health issues in a private and anonymous online setting. One example of a support site is Better Choices Better Health, found at http://www.restartliving.org/. This site provides information for both online and in-person workshops. These workshops provide an opportunity for diabetics to share experiences with each other and to receive professional help with blood sugar control.

There is an increase in alternative/complementary medicine, such as using cinnamon to control blood sugar. I googled this and found a few reports on studies which have shown that cinnamon can in fact lower blood sugar levels for type-2 diabetics. This sort of research is controversial, however, because scientists are not yet sure how this works. Either way, health food and natural medicine companies are jumping on this and other similar findings, which leaves diabetics with several options to try on their own. I know from my own experience that whole wheat products and whole fruit are a much better source of carbs than processed wheat or fruit juice, because the latter cause glucose levels to spike.

One of the main issues facing Utah Diabetes Prevention and Control  is lack of funding.  Diabetics without insurance have a hard time getting medicine they need, and supplies are expensive (just ask my parents). The organization is always trying to find low-cost resources for people with limited resources. Unfortunately, their funding does not allow them to do direct services, so they need to look to their partners to help people with purchasing some of the supplies.  This is a challenge in itself because their partners are facing limitations themselves.

UDPC is trying to get people to recognize that gestational diabetes is serious. Too many  women believe that they are fine after the pregnancy ends and do not realize that they have a much higher risk for diabetes. Some may even already have undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. One major push is to get women to be tested postpartum for blood sugar levels. This is hard because these women have their hands full with a new baby, but it’s important to help them realize that it's worth the effort. One prevention effort by the UDPC is to send cards and fridge magnets to every women with GDM on her baby's birth certificate, telling them to get their blood sugar checked. These efforts have played a role in getting more women tested postpartum.

The CDC is putting a lot of emphasis on diabetes prevention, and the UDPC is in the process of applying for new funding that requires a lot of work in this area. Also, Intermountain Healthcare is in the planning stages of starting a “prevention clinic.” Most of this sort of work seems to focus on promotion, such as the example of sending cards to women who have just given birth. UPDC is currently working on informing the public that diabetes affects about 130,000 adults in Utah and is the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness and non-traumatic amputation among adults. According to my source, about one-third of people with diabetes don't know they have it, which means that promotion can play a big part in improving prevention and treatment.