Upcoming “Hispanic” month to promote diabetes kits

I have my personal interest in diabetes.

My mother has it. She is awaiting a kidney for transplant, and is undergoing an intense regimen of dialysis treatments (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) in order to keep herself alive.

THE DISEASE THAT has thrown her kidneys out of whack is hereditary. I know, because my maternal grandmother also died due to complications from diabetes, and I understand it also was behind the deaths of my great-grandparents.

My point in bringing up this personal history is that there is a very good chance that either myself or my brother (or maybe both of us) will have to deal with diabetes at some point in our lives.

And apparently, I am not alone.

The American Diabetes Association is using a grant it received from the Abbott Fund to coordinate a project in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month (which begins Monday).

THEY HAVE COME up with an adult prevention toolkit, which is intended to be distributed to people in predominantly Latino neighborhoods across the United States.

This kit provides information meant to make Latinos more aware of the fact that diabetes hits our ethnic groups at higher rates than the Anglo population of this country.

The American Diabetes Association contends that about 24 million people in the United States suffer from diabetes. They note Latino populations are nearly twice as likely as non-Hispanic white people to contract the disease, with roughly half of all racial or ethnic minorities born in 2000 likely to contract it at some point in their lives.

“Personal health matters such as diabetes can be a sensitive subject among Latino communities,” the diabetes association’s Latino subcommittee Chairman Lurelean Gaines said, in a prepared statement.

“WE WANT TO change that in a culturally sensitive way,” Gaines said. “The American Diabetes Association provides a wealth of relevant information specifically for Hispanic/Latino populations, so health issues can move from personal or individual challenges, to broader community-based solutions.”

That is why these diabetes kits contain educational materials, written both in English and in Spanish, such as recipe samplers to encourage healthier eating, along with lifestyle tip sheets (stressing exercise, which many lower-income Latinos who work physically strenuous jobs may think of as a luxury for which they have no time).

They ought to make time.

For in looking at my family’s case, it is likely that lack of exercise helped aggravate my mother’s physical condition. It wasn’t until she had a medical diagnosis of diabetes that she began a serious diet that caused her to lose significant amounts of weight.

IF YOU THINK I’m getting too personal about my mother, let me tell you that she will be the first to brag about herself and how she weighs nearly 100 pounds less than she once did.

Perhaps some serious information to my mother at an earlier point in her life could have helped her to avoid her current treatments, which although they keep her alive by cleaning out her blood of the toxins that the rest of us dispose of when we use the bathroom, they also leave her in a weakened condition so that it takes her nearly a full day after treatment to regain her physical strength.

The diabetes association plans to use health festivals across the United States during the upcoming month to distribute their kits of information.

To be called “Feria de Salud Por Tu Familia,” the first event is being held Saturday in the South Bronx.

OTHER EVENTS WILL be held Sept. 20 in Laredo, Texas; Sept. 21 in San Jose, Calif.; and Sept. 27 in both Dallas and Miami. Officials also are trying to schedule a similar event in Los Angeles some time during November.

So if anyone out there is a bit offended that this particular commentary comes off as too much of an unpaid commercial for the diabetes association’s latest Latino promotion, I can’t help but think it a worthwhile enough cause.

If at least one person manages to take better care of themselves so they can avoid the predicament my mother is now enduring, then I believe I will have accomplished something worthwhile.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The American Diabetes Association is making its Latino toolkits available (http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=12467&cha=14) to people who call 1-800-342-2383 (800-DIABETES) or use its website at http://www.diabetes.org/.