“My Health, My Choices”: NLCHC’s Health Education Series

By John Peck and Asha Alex |  January 28, 2017

Just like in football, health issues sometimes need to come with a '2-minute warning' in order to make adjustments.
 
Our clinic recently was a '2-minute warning' on an important health topic - diabetes. If you catch diabetes in the 2-minute warning stage, sometimes you can make adjustments without medication. And if you don't, the consequences can create long-term difficulties in your health. 
 
We recently launched a series of monthly health education talks entitled “My Health, My Choices.” These talks serve as one of the ways we increase access to health education and resources to those in need, and empower all individuals to take control of their health and wellbeing.
 
We have developed a partnership with the Boulevard Family Transitional Residence, a 2-minute walk from our health center. Asha Alex, MD MPH, our Director of Community Health and Carlos Diaz, MD, a health center volunteer, presented “What Do I Know About: Diabetes” and “How to become my own Health Advocate.” There were a total of 40 people in attendance.
 
Our audience was shocked to learn that more than 29 million people are living with diabetes in America. That's the equivalent to 1 in every 11 people. You may find it important to know that diabetes brings with it various risk factors, symptoms and differences between pre-diabetes and Type 1, 2 and gestational diabetes.
 
One attendee shared that she had lost a family member due to the effects of diabetes leading to kidney disease, while others mentioned that they had a positive family history, and were recently diagnosed as either being pre-diabetic or diabetic. One important area our audience wanted to know is why and how diabetes affects different organs, and how to best approach healthy eating and weight loss to prevent diabetes. Each person who had diabetes was given a Diabetes Checkbook to help log his or her blood sugar levels throughout the day.  
 
We'll continue health talks throughout the year. Our social work volunteers and interns, are also helping deliver presentations. Upcoming topics include: Substance Abuse, Depression and Hypertension.
 
Finally...If you have a professional background in a medically-related area and you’d like to give a talk on a medical topic, please contact Asha Alex at alexa@nlchc.org

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