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CLOUDY Temp: 40 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Saturday, December 21, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend November 18, 2002 Susan Whitted, a diabetes educator at Providence Medford Medical Center, shows cholesterol levels in ice cream bars to Alden Moyer, 79. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli The growing danger of DIABETES A Medford hospital’s diabetes educator offers ideas on eating better and starting an exercise program to fight the main risk factor for the illness — obesity By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune Because of the fattening of America, diabetes has reached epidemic levels, spurring heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and blindness and — even though only 6 percent of people have diabetes — it and its complications now account for about 25 percent of the demand for medical services. About two-thirds of diabetic patients are over 60, said nurse-dietician Susan Whitted, a diabetes educator at Providence Medford Medical Center. The disease can "devastate every system in the body" and shorten life, but its onset can be greatly slowed by some simple advice: move more and eat less. "You can attribute almost all diabetes to the obesity epidemic," said Whitted, who teaches a class on diabetes management at noon Wednesday. "We have grown into a society that eats more and moves less, and that has to be reversed. "We have an abundant food supply, a lot of social interaction around food and it’s so easy now to open it and eat it, instead of peeling a potato and preparing something." The main risk factors are a family history of diabetes, being over 45, being overweight and (for women) having had a child over 9 pounds, said nurse Debbie Zietlow, diabetes educator at Rogue Valley Medical Center. The advice may be timeworn and repetitive, but you have to eat your vegetables (lots of them), shun fat, sugary and fried foods, eat lean meats and exercise � a minimum half-hour walk a day. More exercise is better and it would be nice to get up to aerobic heart-rate levels and do resistance exercises with weights, said Whitted, "but I’m just thankful if I can get people walking daily." Diabetes develops when good sugars in the blood aren’t readily absorbed into the body. Blood thickens and doesn’t circulate well in smaller vessels in the eyes, kidneys and extremities. Blood gets more fatty. It clogs arteries, promoting stroke and heart disease. Your body doesn’t get energy and you’re tired, which brings more weight gain. In addition to getting diabetics on sensible food and exercise regimens, diabetes educators work to identify pre-diabetics and get them on track. With lifestyle change, 58 percent of such people can be kept from becoming full-blown diabetics, said Zietlow. The diabetes management drill means moving steadily toward a lifestyle of regular exercise you can realistically perform and avoiding crash diets. Not smoking is a must. Eat a high-fiber diet. Cut all saturated fats — the ones that are solid at room temperature, including most animal fats (mainly red meat), hydrogenated oils and tropical oils, like coconut oil. Also avoid the trans-fatty acids, like margarine and butter. Commercial snack foods are rife with such fats, she said. The latest figures on diabetes are chilling. The number of diabetics is expected to double within 25 years, with 800,000 new cases a year in the United States. More than 17 million Americans have diabetes and half don’t know it, Zietlow said. Symptoms are excessive fatigue, thirst and urination, vision and weight changes and numbness or tingling in feet and hands. Diabetics have a two to four times greater chance of heart attack and stroke than average — and 75 percent of them will die of these afflictions, Zietlow said. "That is largely controllable though keeping your blood pressure below 130 over 80 with meds and keeping lipids (cholesterol) under 100." Good diabetes management calls for LDL (bad cholesterol) below 100, HDL (good cholesterol) above 45 in men and 55 in women and triglycerides below 150. Annual blood sugar labwork is advised. Most people newly diagnosed with diabetes go through a grieving process before they act, because they have old information and "myths about grandma losing a leg," Zietlow said. "But when they realize what’s gone wrong and what tools they have, they are motivated and get on top of it." The class "Diabetes, Nutrition and Heart Disease" is at Providence Medford medical Center, noon, Wednesday. Call 732-5053 to register. John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] For information American Diabetes Assn. 800-342-2383, www.diabetes.org healthlink.mcw.edu/article/980799269.html Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S