A sweet family affair

Dia­betes is really a fam­ily affair. If you are deal­ing with this dis­ease, most likely some­one else in your fam­ily has already received this diag­no­sis or may have to face it in the future.

Researchers have declared that pass­ing dia­betes on to a fam­ily mem­ber is the num­ber one cause of this dis­ease. Cur­rently one in four peo­ple have pre-diabetes. This is the con­di­tion where blood glu­cose lev­els are not low enough to be within a nor­mal range but not high enough for the diag­no­sis of dia­betes. In the past doc­tors called pre-diabetes a “touch of sugar.”

Ini­tially dia­betes is a silent dis­ease. The aver­age per­son walks around with it for an aver­age of seven years before rec­og­niz­ing the symp­toms or com­pli­ca­tions. Blood tests reveal the course of this insulin disorder.

As fam­ily mem­bers gather together for the hol­i­days take a somber moment to dis­cuss genetic health his­tory. If Grandma or Uncle Jack had dia­betes, pay atten­tion — you may be next.

Fear is the num­ber one emo­tion when this diag­no­sis is dis­cussed. Many folks remem­ber the treat­ments and unwanted affects of long ago. Glass syringes and nee­dles big enough for a horse have been replaced with new technology.

Too many fam­i­lies ignore dia­betes and this leads to more com­pli­ca­tions than just an ele­vated blood glu­cose. Pay atten­tion to those in the fam­ily who have had recent dia­betes train­ing. Most likely if the infor­ma­tion is older than five years old, it can be outdated.

As of 2011, there are more than 450 sci­en­tific research stud­ies that are ongo­ing. Each inves­ti­ga­tion has the pos­si­bil­ity of new infor­ma­tion that ulti­mately may end in a cure. Any one of these explo­rations can make or break the treat­ment that is cur­rently popular.

Attend­ing a fam­ily gath­er­ing and observ­ing rel­a­tives man­ag­ing their dia­betes can often –times be a recipe for dis­ap­point­ment, frus­tra­tion and more fear. Imme­di­ate fam­ily sup­port is usu­ally strong but it’s the extended fam­ily rel­a­tives that can ruin a fun holiday.

Throw away books and pam­phlets that are older than 10 years old and any­thing older than 5 years old may still be incor­rect. This is a rapidly chang­ing field of study.

When some­one with a “touch of sugar” tries to explain that it is okay to eat a piece of pie with ice cream after a huge meal full of pota­toes, rolls and suc­co­tash washed down with eggnog or a glass of sweet tea, just know that this rel­a­tive is not very well informed. Ques­tion what part of pre-diabetes is not understood.

Hosts may go out of their way to pre­pare a spe­cial sugar-free menu item just for those deal­ing with this dis­ease. This is not nec­es­sary if the per­son with dia­betes is in com­pli­ance with a con­sis­tent car­bo­hy­drate meal plan. Often it is the amount of car­bo­hy­drate foods that affect the blood sugar — not the variety.

When peo­ple go on a vaca­tion they research the loca­tion. Dia­betes is a des­ti­na­tion for fam­ily mem­bers who share this gene. Whether the entire fam­ily walks this road or one takes a detour around, it is a deci­sion. Sup­port those deal­ing with dia­betes and learn more about the new treatments.

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor and a reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Dun­lap Com­mu­nity Hos­pi­tal in Orrville. Con­tact her at brandall@dunlaphospital.org or 330–684-4776.

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Dec 22 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.