When the diagnosis is diabetes

By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer | Sunday, November 19, 2006

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For Maria Holy Eagle, talking about diabetes is emotional.

Six months ago, the Rapid City grandmother began experiencing dizzy spells, extreme fatigue and unquenchable thirst along with frequent trips to the bathroom. Not feeling well, Holy Eagle went to the Sioux San Diabetes Clinic, where health care workers discovered she had a glucose reading of 400. Normal readings range between 90 and 120.

Her eyes well with tears as she recalls her doctor telling her that she had type 2 diabetes.

Holy Eagle joins nearly 21 million adults and children in the United States who have diabetes, of which 6 million people aren’t aware that they have the disease, according to experts.

“I knew it was coming,” Holy Eagle said. “I really didn’t want it to happen.”

Holy Eagle, 55, now takes a daily pill to help her body release more insulin, watches what she eats and monitors her blood sugar level at least three times a day. Her monitor readings need to fall between 90 and 120. If her sugar levels are any higher, she grabs her jacket and heads outdoors for a brisk walk.

“It lowers my blood sugar,” Holy Eagle said of the activity.

Those at risk for the diabetes include African Americans, Latinos, American Indians, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders as well as those who are overweight and sedentary.

Most children with the disease have type 1 diabetes, but with more children being categorized as overweight or obese, type 2 diabetes is beginning to be seen in youth also.

The American Diabetes Association says that clinically-based reports and regional studies suggest that type 2 diabetes, although still rare, is being diagnosed more frequently in children and adolescents, particularly in American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanic/Latino Americans.

If you see an overweight child, it may be a sign that the entire family may need better activity levels and nutrition, said Dr. Rachel Edelen, a pediatric endocrinologist at Rapid City Regional Hospital.

While some families may focus on the one overweight child in the family Edelen says if the entire family eats healthier foods and becomes more physically active, the child will benefit.

“If you don’t change as a family, children won’t successfully change their actions either,” she said. “Everyone can benefit from a better diet and exercise.”

Half of Edelen’s practice involves treating patients with type 1 diabetes.

It is caused by an autoimmune disorder where the immune system mistakes beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin as an invader to the body. The immune system attacks the beta cells. When enough beta cells are destroyed, the pancreas no longer produces insulin and diabetes symptoms appear. Unfortunately, mostly children get type 1 diabetes.

“You can’t prevent it,” she said. “It’s a very tough, complex disease and it’s hard to control.”

But those with type 2 diabetes can do something to prevent it. Poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles put healthy children and adults at risk for the disease.

Registered nurse Diane Rolof, a certified diabetes educator, said the disease comes on gradually over time so that often people don’t recognize the symptoms.

People often associate their symptoms to other things going on in their lives, Rolof said.

But if you have several of these symptoms, it should be a red flag to see your physician.

These common symptoms of diabetes are fatigue, thirst, need to urinate often, blurred vision, hunger, sudden weight loss, sexual problems, wounds that won’t heal, vaginal infections and numbness or tingling in the hands or feet.

Diabetes risk factors include smoking, drinking, being overweight, having high blood pressure or having a family history of diabetes.

If you smoke, it raises the risk of amputation and other complications of diabetes as well as heart disease, eye damage, kidney damage and nerve damage, she said.

In an effort to prevent diabetes, the Indian Health Service Special Diabetes Program launched a new project for those at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

In May, July and October, three groups of volunteers underwent testing at Sioux San’s Diabetes Clinic to determine if they were at risk for the disease and to take part in a three-year project that may prevent or delay this epidemic illness.

The volunteers are some of the nearly 54 million people in the United States who have a condition called “pre-diabetes,” where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes, according to American Diabetes Association.

Warren Pourier, IHS Special Diabetes Program project coordinator, said the program needs 48 more community members ages 18 years and older that IHS Sioux San

Hospital serves to participate in the 16-session project. Once enrolled, participants will receive education in

nutrition, physical education and lifestyle changes.

“Our goal is to catch people who are at risk for diabetes and to find them at the prediabetic stage,” Pourier said. “We work with them so that they don’t progress to becoming a diabetic.”

This project may have made a difference in Holy Eagle’s health crisis.

Living in Chicago, Holy

Eagle’s first hint of her coming diabetes happened 24 years ago at the arrival of her daughter, Tada. At birth, her daughter weighed 9 pounds 5 ounces. Her mother, Catherine Brings Horse Silva, a health care worker at the old Bennett-Clarkson Hospital in Rapid City, warned Holy Eagle that because she delivered a baby weighing more than 9 pounds with her heavy diet and her being an Indian, she was at risk for the disease.

Holy Eagle changed her

diet, began eating fresh produce and walked everywhere. It helped. But by her fifth pregnancy, she developed gestational diabetes. It was then that she began taking insulin shots. Once the baby was born, the symptoms subsided but Holy Eagle continued to have her blood sugar tested.

“I knew that to raise my children, I would have to be healthy,” Holy Eagle said.

In May, her high blood sugar readings indicated that she would need medication to control her glucose levels, but it has also brought more awareness of how simple lifestyle changes can make a big difference in how she feels.

“It’s working for me,” Holy Eagle said.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.