November is Designated as American Diabetes Month
November marks the start of American Diabetes Month. This is a nationwide initiative that works to help educate the public about symptoms and to identify key early warning signs of the disease. I hope that through this article, we can continue to find ways of bringing awareness to causes like this one. The American Diabetes Association initiates its annual campaign to work to bridge the gap between this health issue and the public’s understanding of it. Campaigns such as this will hopefully help people better understand diabetes and its implications, as well as detect the various symptoms of this disease.
While there are around 29 million Americans who have diabetes, about 86 million people over the age of 20 have pre-diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association’s Corpus Christi office, about 86,000 people will fight both pre-diabetes and diabetes every day in the Coastal Bend. Many people are not aware that diabetes actually can be a manageable or even preventable disease. In those individuals who have pre-diabetes, their blood glucose levels are heightened, but not necessarily at a high enough level to be considered fully stricken with diabetes. There are some steps that can be taken in order to help try and lower these glucose levels to delay or even potentially prevent a diabetes diagnosis. These steps include getting around thirty minutes of moderate exercise a day for five days out of the week, reducing overall caloric intake, and eating less fatty foods. Also, these new habits can result in the loss of between five to seven percent of your total weight. Shedding this amount of weight has generally proven to help in lowering diabetes risks, according to the Diabetes Prevention Program and Outcomes Study that was conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
This year’s theme for American Diabetes Month is “America Gets Cooking to Stop Diabetes,” which is designed to help people try and combat this disease through better and more creative eating habits, as well as inspiring them to become more active. In their initiative, each day of the week seeks to target a specific aspect of combating the disease, including things like Get Moving Mondays and What’s Cooking Wednesdays. There are tips on how to modify recipes into diabetes-friendly meals, different ways to exercise and be active, as well as learning more facts on the disease. You can follow the calendar at Diabetes Forecast – The Healthy Living Magazine.”
If you would like to learn more about American Diabetes Month or find out some of the early warning signs and symptoms, some helpful websites include the American Diabetes Association, the Texas Department of State Health Services or the National Diabetes Education Program.
As a reminder, the 84th Texas Legislative session is fast approaching and will be back in session in January of 2015. As always, I want to hear your ideas and suggestions as we get closer the start of next session. These ideas and information are important forms of feedback and I hope that you will not hesitate to contact my office.
If you have questions regarding any of the information mentioned in this week’s article, please do not hesitate to call my Capitol or District Office. Please always feel free to contact my office if you have any questions or issues regarding a Texas state agency, or if you would like to contact my office regarding constituent services. As always, my offices are available at any time to assist with questions, concerns or comments (Capitol Office, 512-463-0672; District Office, 361-949-4603).
– State Representative Todd Hunter, District 32
