Connect the dots: Diabetes, bell ringing and dogs

There is so much infor­ma­tion to share. Here are three unre­lated top­ics, each valu­able at this time of the sea­son: dia­betes pre­ven­tion, Sal­va­tion Army buckets;and foods that can kill your dog.

Dur­ing National Dia­betes Month, efforts around the world are rais­ing aware­ness of this epi­demic. Glob­ally, this dis­ease is affect­ing peo­ple at an alarm­ing rate. In fact in some coun­tries dia­betes has sur­passed HIV/AIDS as the ill­ness tak­ing the most lives.

Edu­ca­tion is cen­tered on pre­ven­tion. Genet­ics plays a role, as well as envi­ron­ment and life style. The most dif­fi­cult thing to over­come in pre­vent­ing dia­betes is help­ing peo­ple real­ize that a life style change is nec­es­sary to avoid deal­ing with diabetes.

As you visit fam­ily and friends over the hol­i­days, con­sider the fact that you may be the best per­son in someone’s life to pre­vent dia­betes. Researchers revealed that peo­ple with unhealthy life styles attract oth­ers and even encour­age habits in others.

Overeat­ing and inac­tiv­ity can lead to pre­di­a­betes and dia­betes. As Christ­mas approaches, encour­age those around you to get more active and con­trol por­tion sizes of food and drinks.

One way to get more exer­cise is to vol­un­teer to ring bells for the local Sal­va­tion Army. This orga­ni­za­tion pro­vides food, shel­ter and relief to peo­ple in need. To whom much is given, much is expected. If you have much, give more. They need money but if all you have to give is energy give it to bell ring­ing and help the Sal­va­tion Army and yourself.

There are hol­i­day foods that actu­ally can kill your dog. Turkey skin tops the list because of the high fat con­tent. This could lead to pan­cre­ati­tis, which involves vom­it­ing, pain and a very sick dog.

Cooked turkey and ham bones are too brit­tle to be chewed because they can splin­ter and even­tu­ally punc­ture Fido’s intesti­nal tract. Hide the bones in the garbage; they are extremely tempt­ing for trash can divers and could send you and your pooch to the veterinarian.

Onions and gar­lic con­tain sul­fides which are poi­so­nous to dogs. Cook­ing does not reduce their tox­i­c­ity. Even though many dogs love the taste of beer; drink­ing could pose to be a prob­lem for your pup­dogs. Their sys­tems do not know what to do with alco­hol and it is toxic. If you have a dog that does drink beer, con­tact AA for dogs and be glad that he has not died of alco­hol poisoning.

Macadamia nuts are dan­ger­ous and could lead to vom­it­ing, tremors and deadly shock. Nut­meg is linked to seizures in dogs. Pump­kin and sweet pota­toes are healthy foods for your dogs but with­out the nutmeg.

Sage is pop­u­lar in stuff­ing and could cause vom­it­ing. We all know that choco­late is a no-no for dogs. Raw dough and bat­ter could be an extreme prob­lem for your dog. Keep your furkids safe this hol­i­day season.

Dia­betes, bell ring­ing and dogs, what a com­bi­na­tion for a col­umn; I usu­ally tie every­thing together. How’s this: Keep your dogs healthy so that they can accom­pany you on a walk to con­trol blood sug­ars, then call the local Sal­va­tion Army to sign up for bell ring­ing to help others.

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor and a reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Aultman-Orrville Hos­pi­tal, Orrville. Con­tact her at bobbie.randall@aultmanorrville.org or 330–684-4776.

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Nov 21 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.