Community Health Coalition November Health Tip: Diabetes and Organ Donation Awareness
“Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S. It is of even greater significance in the African American community. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, and lower limb amputation among adults in the U.S. The good news is diet, exercise, and weight loss can prevent diabetes and/or control and reduce the risk of complications from the disease. Individuals have the power to make changes in their lifestyles!” states Dr. Bryan Batch.
Five FREE things you can do to improve your diabetes and reduce the risk of complications are:
- Keep track of what you eat and how much you exercise. Tracking provides an opportunity to understand your habits and make a plan to change your behavior. Tracking is also a great way to jump-start new habits if your plan doesn’t work the first time.
- Eat less food at each meal.
- Substitute WATER for sugar-sweetened beverages.
- Increase physical activity. Start out walking 10 minutes a day and increase the distance you walk over time. A healthy goal is 30 minutes of activity 5 days a week.
- Tell friends and family about your goals and ask for their support.
Setting SMART goals can help you reach them. SMART stands for:
- Specific (simple, sensible, significant)
- Measurable (meaningful, motivating)
- Achievable (agreed, attainable)
- Relevant (reasonable, realistic, resourced, results-based)
- Time-bound (time-based, time-limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive)
Nurse Dolores Blue from Community Health Coalition shares the following with you: “Be mindful of monitoring finger sticks, nutritional choices, daily exercises, and physical/emotional changes…and, REPORT changes to your healthcare provider.
Organ Donation Awareness
Organ donation is the process of providing an organ, organs, or a partial organ to transplant into one or more people. Organ donors can be deceased or living. Experts say that the organs from one donor can save or help as many as 50 people. African-Americans make up the largest group of minorities in need of an organ transplant and therefore more African Americans should sign up to become organ donors. Diseases involving the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, and liver that can lead to organ failure are found more often in minority populations. African- Americans have greater incidences of diabetes and hypertension which can lead to kidney failure. More than 1,800 African-Americans are waiting for transplants in North Carolina; of this number, over 90% are waiting for a kidney transplant.
You can bring hope to those waiting and their families by joining the NC Donor Registry by going to the Community Health Coalition website www.communityhealthcoalition.com or by calling (919) 470-8680
For More Information:
www.cdc.gov – Center for Disease Control and Prevention
www.communityhealthcoalition.com
For information about health tips, please visit communityhealthcoalition.com, call (919) 470-8680.
Health Tip is a message from Community Health Coalition, Inc. with support from Eurofins Foundation.