I’ve written about the dangers of diabetes and what you can do to help yourself if you are in danger of developing the disease or if you already are living with diabetes. It is important to arm yourself with knowledge
I’ve written about the dangers of diabetes and what you can do to help yourself if you are in danger of developing the disease or if you already are living with diabetes. It is important to arm yourself with knowledge and find helpful resources in our community.
For instance, here’s some important information that I have written about in the past. There is no doubt, that research has definitely shown that if you have type 2 diabetes you are already on the path to Alzheimer’s Disease. The good news is type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease, one that is avoidable through good nutrition, exercise and thoughtful living.
The link between Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes is this. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the liver, muscle and fat cells stop responding effectively to insulin. Insulin is the hormone produced in the pancreas that tells the cells of your body to absorb glucose (sugar) from the blood and thereby lowers blood glucose and allows the liver and muscles to use glucose for energy or to be stored as fat for use later.
The illness is caused by consuming too many foods that are sugary or high in fat and sugar so that in essence you desensitize the receptor sites on the muscle and liver cells by the constant bombardment of sugar.
This insulin resistance leads to the obvious obesity that we see everywhere, but also to memory loss and confusion, since your brain can’t get the glucose which it needs out of the blood, and many other functions of the body are compromised by the high levels of sugar that stay trapped in the blood.
Research at Brown University showed that the hippocampus in the brain (the part involved in learning and memory) can also become insensitive to insulin in those people with type 2 diabetes, and therefore lead to dementia. Animal research has shown that when animals are fed high fat, high sugar diets that they form the insoluble plaques of beta-amyloid in their — a protein that is synonymous with Alzheimer’s disease.
Therefore, I’m wanting to share with you some valuable information about some upcoming workshops that are free, open to the public and are evidence-based.
The Diabetes Self-Management Program is designed and certified by Stanford University, and we will have the opportunity here on Kauai to attend this fall.
The workshops will be given in two locations. One in the Piikoi Building in Lihue in the conference room (Suite 330). The times there are 3 to 5:30 p.m. The other location is at the Waimea Neighborhood Center. The times there are 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. At both locations the dates are; Sept. 16, 23, 30, Oct. 7, 14 and 21.
Although the workshops are free, you must pre-register by either calling Evelyn Hua the Quality Improvement Coach National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii at 808-589-5908 or 309-349-5349 or email Evelyn at Evelyn@kidneyhi.org. You can also take a look at at www.kidneyhi.org. The other contact person is Johnny Yago here on Kauai at (808) 651-2513.
There is an exercise component to the program as well as self-management skills, resources and education. This particular program is used all over the world and is designed to help people become more efficient at managing their health and health issues.
It is given in a series of workshops once a week for six weeks and each session is 2 and 1/2 hours long. These sessions are open to all who are living with diabetes, those who are at risk and also those helping family members who have diabetes.
I urge you to attend if this information applies to you. Aloha!
