In honor of November being National Diabetes Awareness Month, numerous organizations are offering free glucose testing, blood sugar testing and information on how to live healthier through nutrition and exercise.
The Long Beach Diabetes Collaborative represents the local hospitals, stores and organizations lending a hand in the fight against diabetes. The organizer of the collaborative, Laurie Gruschka, said this month is about people taking charge of their lives and getting a better understanding of the disease.
According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes occurs when a person’s insulin does not function properly in the body. Insulin is a vital hormone that turns substances such as starch and sugar into energy.
Gruschka said that once diagnosed, this disease is a lifelong struggle that can lead to anything from a complicated pregnancy to limb amputations.
Gruschka also said diabetes has become an epidemic in Long Beach and across the nation because of the rise in obesity and sedentary lifestyles.
“In the last 15 years the number of people with diabetes has more than doubled,” said Gruschka. She said she hopes National Diabetes Awareness Month will spread awareness and that people will seek preventive techniques so they will never have to suffer from the disease.
Sophomore psychology major Melinda Patton saaid it is important to “watch what you eat, because as you get older the food will catch up to you.”
“It’s really important for people to know that living healthy can lower risk,” said Gruschka. However, she said that eating healthy is easier to do in certain cities than in others.
Unfortunately, she marked Long Beach as the city with the “third-highest ratio of fast-food chains to supermarkets.” This is of concern to her because she said it means fruits and vegetables are not as easily obtainable as unhealthy foods are.
Her passion for Long Beach comes partly from having three coworkers at the diabetes collaborative who are Cal State Long Beach alumni.
“There is a lot of diversity in Long Beach,” Gruschka said. However, she said that Long Beach also has a higher average of people with diabetes than Los Angeles County does as a whole. She said that minorities are at a risk greater than others are and said it is important that Long Beach take a proactive stance against diabetes.
The American Diabetes Association offers numerous tips on offsetting the development of diabetes through its website.
This advice includes that a person could lower his or her chances of getting diabetes by minimizing health obstacles. Serious concerns include such problems as “being overweight, unhealthy cholesterol, smoking, high blood glucose, high blood pressure and physical inactivity,” as well as the consumption of alcohol.
“You can die from diabetes. I’ll have my fun without so much alcohol,” Patton said. She said that when she was younger, she never really gave diabetes much thought because she figured it was an “old people” disease.
Most importantly, according to Gruschka, people need to talk to their doctors about diabetes early. She said that teenagers and people in their twenties are developing type II diabetes, which, according to the American Diabetes Association, is the most serious type of the disease.
That age is much lower than what was common 15 years ago, Gruschka added.
For people who feel like they have no time to make doctors appointments, the Long Beach Community Hospital, as well as various health centers around the city, are giving free glucose testing this entire month.
