November is Diabetes Awareness Month

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! 

Did you know that 1 in 3 Canadians are living with diabetes or prediabetes? So many lives are touched by this chronic disease, yet so few Canadians know they are at risk for developing diabetes. 

What is Diabetes?

It’s a chronic disease where the body cannot make enough insulin or cannot use insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone that helps to control blood sugars. A high amount of sugar in the blood over a long period of time can damage organs, blood vessels, and nerves.  

Are you at risk?

Not much is known about definite risk factors for Type 1 Diabetes, but there are quite a few risk factors for developing Type 2 Diabetes. Some we can have some control over, but some we cannot. 

Here’s a list of risk factors for developing Type 2 Diabetes:

• Have a parent, brother, or sister living with diabetes.

• Member of high-risk group (Indigenous, Hispanic, South Asian, Asian, African descent)

• Have given birth to a baby weighing more than 4kg or 9lb

• Have had gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy)

• Prediabetes diagnosis

• Have high blood pressure

• Have high cholesterol  or high blood fats

• Have extra weight around abdomen, overweight

• Have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) diagnosis

• Have acanthosis nigricans diagnosis

• Have obstructive sleep apnea diagnosis

• Have diagnosed psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia, depression

Ask your doctor to test if you have diabetes if you are over 40 years old or if you have several risk factors after taking this risk test: https://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/en/canrisk

Don’t have a doctor?  Find one here: www.albertafindadoctor.ca

Fight the Risk

Here are some healthy habit ideas that can help lower your risk of diabetes:

• Eat a high fibre breakfast everyday

• Eat 1 cup of vegetables at each of your meals

• Eat 2-3 servings of fruit each day (1 serving =0.5 cup or tennis ball size piece of fruit)  

• Go for a 10-15 minute walk at lunch everyday

• Try deep breathing or visualization technique to manage your stress or check out other stress management techniques at https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/tests-treatments/pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=rlxsk&

Your Team

You have a team of Registered Dietitians, Exercise Specialist, Registered Nurses, Behavioural Health Consultants and Mental Health Therapists that can support your health journey through the Team-Based Care program at the PCN.  You can access this team for support by asking for a referral from your family doctor.  

Heart Healthy

To register online: http://lbdpcn.com/Pages/Event-Details.aspx?EventID=33&EventSeriesID=70&

November is Diabetes Awareness Month - Exercise

Diabetes and the Effectiveness of Regular Physical Activity 

The short-term benefits of increasing physical activity for a person with diabetes:

• Lowers your blood glucose within one hour.
• Increases your energy and strength during the day
• Decreases stress, anxiety and fatigue
• Improves relaxation and sleep
• Improves overall well being  

The long-term benefits if activity is sustained:

• Improved blood glucose (sugar) control.
• Helps to maintain or lose weight.
• Lowered blood pressure.
• Stronger bones and muscles.
• Lower risk of diabetes complications such as eye, heart, and kidney disease.
• Improved quality of life.

One of the most effective aerobic activities with the lowest dropout rate is walking.  It can be as simple as going for a brisk walk in your neighborhood.  Click here for an example of a walking plan if you are just starting out. Feel free to print it for your own use or share it with others.  

Both aerobic and resistance exercises are important when it comes to decreasing the risk of developing or advancing Type 2 Diabetes as both help to improve the bodies insulin sensitivity.      

The following facts were taken from the Canadian Diabetes Association website:

• Low physical fitness is as strong a risk factor for mortality as smoking.
• Fitness level is one of the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality in people with diabetes.
• Physical activity can be as powerful as glucose-lowering medication… with fewer side effects.
• Regular physical activity, in conjunction with healthy eating and weight control, can reduce type 2 diabetes incidence by 60 per cent.

If you require help with getting started on an exercise or activity plan, ask your PCN family doctor for a referral to the Exercise Specialist on the SMILE team.      

Corinne Cutler is an Exercise Specialist at the Leduc Beaumont Devon Primary Care Network.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

World Health Day - April 7, 2013

World Health Day will be celebrated on April 7 to mark the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948.  Each year a theme is selected that highlights a priority of public health concern in the world.  This year's theme is: High Blood Pressure.

Blood Pressure Facts

1. More than 1 in 3 adults worldwide has high blood pressure.
2. 40% of adults aged 25 and over had raised blood pressure in 2008 making hypertension the leading risk of death and disability in the world today.
3. An estimated 7.3 million Canadians currently have hypertension; in 33% of those people, it is uncontrolled.
4. An additional 1 in 5 adult Canadians have prehypertension (130 mmHg to 139 mmHg systolic and/or 88 mmHg to 89 mmHg diastolic) which puts them at a very high risk of developing hypertension, and also at risk for heart attacks and strokes.
5. Over 90% of Canadians are estimated to develop hypertension if they live an average life span.

The proportion of adults diagnosed with hypertension doubled between 1998 and 2007.

The pressure is on to raise awareness. For more information, please visit the World Health Organization website.

World Heart Day – September 28, 2012

Inside your body is a very hard working organ that for the majority of people, they don’t really give it a second thought. What do you know about the heart?

• An adult heart only weighs about 11 ounces or about the size of a fist.
• Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times.
• The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime—that's enough to fill more than 3 super tankers.
• A kitchen faucet would need to be turned on all the way for at least 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the heart in an average lifetime.
• The “thump-thump” of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing as it pumps blood all around your body.
• A woman’s heart typically beats faster than a man’s. The heart of an average man beats approximately 70 times a minute, whereas the average woman has a heart rate of 78 beats per minute.

Random Facts

Heart health is so important to keep this vital organ working properly.  Unfortunately, in Canada, every 7 minutes, someone dies from heart disease or stroke. Heart disease and stroke are two of the three leading causes of death in Canada.

Cardiovascular diseases are defined as diseases and injuries of the cardiovascular system: the heart, the blood vessels of the heart and the system of blood vessels (veins and arteries) throughout the body and within the brain. Stroke is the result of a blood flow problem in the brain. It is considered a form of cardiovascular disease.

Nine in 10 Canadians (90%) have at least one risk factor for heart disease or stroke (smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity, obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes).

Heart & Stroke Foundation

All of the above are risk factors that you can manage to keep your heart healthy.   Please take a look at some of our previous blogs for some great heart healthy suggestions.

The Leduc Beaumont Devon Primary Care Network offers a Heart Healthy class at our Leduc office. Heart Healthy is a two-hour class that addresses both hypertension and Dyslipidemia helping patients to understand the importance of managing both of these conditions.  Heart healthy food options are emphasized.  Patients learn how to read nutrition labels looking for sodium and fat content.  They learn how to minimize sodium and cholesterol intake and to make healthier food choices.

This class is accessed through referral from your LBD PCN family physician.

For more information, please call Christina Vesty, RN and LBD PCN Chronic Disease Management Coordinator at 780-986-6624.