Tu Salud Si Cuenta

By Dr. Rose Gowen

One of my patients, Gloria, recently told me that she always thought of diabetes as a disease of the elderly. “My grandmother was diabetic. My father is diabetic. I didn’t expect to become diabetic at such a young age.” Gloria was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when she was 32 years old.

As a Hispanic physician born and raised in this community, I am concerned about the growing number of young people and adults like Gloria, unnecessarily affected by diabetes. Fortunately Gloria has made changes that help her control her diabetes and will add quality and years to her life.

She has learned that in our community there are myths and misinformation about diabetes, like the fact that we think only older folks can have the disease. What she has learned has helped her make the necessary changes, like eating healthier foods and exercising almost every day, in order to control her diabetes with little or no medication. She says it hasn’t been easy, but she knows her health is worth it!

What did Gloria learn about her disease?

There are two types of the disease we call diabetes mellitus. Both have to do with the pancreas. The pancreas is an organ in the upper abdomen whose job is to produce a hormone called insulin needed to manage our blood sugar.

All that we eat and drink is broken down in our stomach and small intestine into sugars that we use to fuel all of our body functions. Insulin from the pancreas is what the cells all over the body need to use this sugar.

The type of diabetes most prevalent in our community is type 2 diabetes, also called adult onset diabetes. But in fact more and more children in our community are developing Type 2 Diabetes due to overweight and obesity, caused by poor food choices and lack of exercise. Type 2 diabetes is often common in families and occurs more often in Hispanics than in non-Hispanics.

Without medication and/or serious lifestyle changes, people with type 2 diabetes can live for months and years, but will eventually develop more and more illnesses along the way. Blindness, kidney failure, nerve dysfunction including impotence, cardiovascular disease, stroke, poor immune function, and poor wound healing are among the most common complications of badly controlled diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes can often be prevented or at least delayed by losing weight and following a healthy diet, because the heavier we get, the harder it is for our insulin to work. A weight loss of even 15 pounds can mean the difference between having to take diabetes medication once or twice a day or at all. Regular exercise improves the action of both insulin and diabetic pills. It is also possible for people who are not overweight to have diabetes.

While heredity and ethnicity are factors, our lifestyles and choices will ultimately determine our health. The effects of diabetes on so many of our family members and neighbors including renal failure, blindness, stroke, wounds that don’t heal and amputated limbs, can be prevented.

As my patient Gloria discovered, one of the best and simplest ways to control type 2 diabetes is by adopting a regular exercise routine, such as walking 30 minutes a day and making healthy food choices, such as eating more fruits and vegetables and reducing portion sizes.

Gloria knows we can make a difference in our health and ultimately strengthen our culture and community.

“Just because I have diabetes in my family doesn’t mean I can’t live a long, healthy life. I want to show my children that we can break the cycle of diabetes in our family by making healthy choices!”

*Patients’ names have been changed.

Dr. Rose Gowen is a medical correspondent for the University of Texas School of Public Health. Tu Salud ¡Si Cuenta! is produced by the UT School of Public Health, Brownsville Regional Campus. You can watch Tu Salud ¡Si Cuenta! health segments on television channel 7 (Buenos Dias) every Thursday morning at 8 a.m. and listen on FM105.9 at 6:45 a.m.; AM1450 at 10:50 a.m. and FM1490 at 5:45 a.m. weekdays.