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November 1, 2001
Help needed
By Robyn Blackstien
rblackst@uwo.ca
Few can resist having just a little bit of chocolate cake from a seemingly endless selection of desserts on a luxury cruise. Lee H. resisted. Not because she wanted to, because she had to.
These kind of daily decisions are a huge challenge for Lee, 54 and many others like her who have type-2 diabetes and are struggling to control their dangerous disease through diet.
"It's really hard because you want to go out and eat all the things everybody else does," Lee said.
Eating healthy and being active is a challenge for many Canadians whose primary concern is how they look in their new outfit. For diabetics, it could mean the difference between a long life and an early death. Coming to terms with that realization and altering one's lifestyle requires support from people who understand. But at the very time when type-2 diabetes is on the rise, some say there is not enough lifestyle support for type-2 diabetics in London.
According to the Canadian Diabetes Association over two million Canadians have diabetes, 90 per cent have type-2 which is controlled through diet, exercise and oral medication.
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| Photo by Robyn Blackstien |
| Julie Serrador at the Canadian Diabetes Association says there isn't necessarily enough support in London. |
Lee Anne Craig, a nurse diabetes educator at St. Joseph's Health Centre's Lawson Diabetes Centre, said the number of patients being referred for diabetes education is increasing. Statistics show an increase of type-2 diabetes in Canada, a trend expected to continue, partly because of the aging baby boomers. Craig said most people are diagnosed when they see their doctor for other problems. "It's a very insidious disease. It's estimated that there are as many people walking around not knowing they have diabetes as are diagnosed."
As more of those people are diagnosed, many will look to others for support. Until April 2000 Lee was part of Sweet Support, an informal support group run by and for diabetics. Because of illness and busy schedules, no one was available to continue running the seven-year-old group, so it disbanded. Now, she said, there probably isn't enough support for type-2 diabetics in London. "Places like the Lawson Centre are quite wonderful, but unfortunately not everybody gets to them."
Since Sweet Support folded, Craig agrees there is not necessarily enough lifestyle support in London. "At the Lawson Centre there are group classes people can access. At this time we don't have the staff or ability (to run a support group). It's something we're always considering for the future and trying to organize," she said.
Julie Serrador, the Canadian Diabetes Association public educator and service coordinator in London, sees that support is limited, but pointed out there is a support group in St. Thomas that people can travel to. The CDA is asking people who are interested in joining a support group to contact them and if there is enough demand they will run one in the future, she said.
But the future may not be soon enough for the growing type-2 diabetic population in London. Current clinical practice guidelines recommend people aged 45 and older with a history of diabetes in their family be tested at least every three years. Craig expects that age to be lowered because more and more younger people, even children, are being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. "That's particularly related to increased obesity, and increased sedentary lifestyle," Craig said.
Jeff Boothroyd is one of those younger people. He does not fit into the traditional type-2 mould. To his knowledge he was the first in his family to get diabetes. He was diagnosed in July 1999 when he was 26-years-old. A viral infection affected his pancreas, which is why he got the disease.
In a telephone interview from Toronto, Boothroyd said that when he was first diagnosed he was upset, but he had suspected it for a while. "For a couple of months I was really thirsty and always having to go to the washroom.... and I was really tired all the time..." He said he wasn't really depressed, just down because it meant not eating "good stuff", like chocolate bars and regular coke anymore. But he was able to get through it with support from his mother, a retired nurse and through a support group.
"At the support group they tell you you can still eat virtually anything you want as long as it's in moderation. And there were some older people there who had it for 10 years and they seemed o.k. Just seeing other people living normal lives helped," he said. And he realized that "of all the diseases you could have, diabetes certainly isn't the worst."
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| Photo courtesy of Jeff Boothroyd |
| Jeff Boothroyd says he got support he needed from a support group in Toronto. |
As prevention, he is now very conscious of what and when he eats and is on medication. "I'm also exercising a lot more," he said, "It's pretty sad but, I'm definitely in the best shape ever." The six-foot-four, 28-year-old has lost 70 pounds.
Though he is avoiding sweets, Boothroyd admits to having one weakness. When he goes out with his friends it's hard for him not to "booze it up." "It's not like I sit and crave a beer," he said. "It's probably just a social thing." But, he said, it gets easier as he gets farther away from his university days.
Many people don't understand how serious diabetes is or how important, and difficult, a lifestyle change is. Serrador said changing eating habits is often the hardest thing for diabetics of any age to accept. Seniors generally is upset because they have been eating one way their whole life, and a childrec see their friends eating whatever they please and may not understand why they can't do the same. Educating the public is one of Serrador's biggest challenges. "People need to understand that diabetes does not go away...it is a lifelong condition," she said. Leading up to November, which is diabetes awareness month, the CDA launched an advertising campaign to increase understanding.
Lee understands. "I don't expect to live a long, long life," she said. Lee was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes five years ago. Now she has neuropathy in her feet, which feels like there is wet sand between her toes. She has also noticed deterioration of her fine motor skills. "I'm trying to eat properly, I'm trying to lose weight. I'm trying to do all the proper things. But diabetes is a sneaky disease. You can do all the right things and still have all the bad things happen to you."
Craig said that modest weight loss might be all that is needed to control blood sugar levels. She encourages activity and puts newly diagnosed type-2 diabetics on a diet that allows a certain amount of sugar per day. This is the biggest challenge for most diabetics, because as Lee said "There are strange things that have sugar in them. Not sugar sugar...your body doesn't know if it's table sugar you're having or if it's bread. One slice of bread is worth three teaspoons of sugar."
Lee said Sweet Support helped her cope with her diagnosis and new restrictive diet. She compared it to Alcoholics Anonymous. "You knew you weren't the only idiot going out and eating the chocolate," she said. "You don't beat yourself up everyday. You just start every day saying 'I'm going to start to eat better, try better and do what I'm supposed to.'"
But until there are support groups in London, people like Lee and Boothroyd will just have to cope on their own.