Free Diabetic Supplies

You may or may not know this, but there are a lot of children both in the United States and around the world that have diabetes.  This type of diabetes is called juvenile diabetes or type 1 diabetes.

There are many things that add to the issues of juvenile diabetes.  Some of these include obesity.  Often, that obesity is coming from junk food, fast food, hidden sweets and fried foods, as well as meals that are not balanced.

As strange as it may seem, part of the problem is in some of the schools.  There are many schools that are offering healthier meals that include actual real vegetables, salads and other low sugar and low carb/high protein foods.

At the same time, many schools have “TV dinner” style foods with too many carbs, sugar and worse, and without a vegetable or piece of fruit in sight.  In case the schools don’t know, tater tots and ketchup are not two vegetables.

This is not to say that your child should not eat school food.  However, it is important to look at the menu and try to limit the number of days they do so, as well as trying to pick the days that healthy food is being provided.

It is a fact that most children diagnosed with diabetes are struggling with obesity as well.  Where is the obesity coming from?  Often the very food that we just spoke about.  In addition, some of the issues are coming from unhealthy snacks.  This, again, is not to say that kids can’t eat the fun stuff.  It boils down to how much and how often the child is eating these things.

Oh, and one last thing.  In case you didn’t know, there are often coke machines at schools – especially middle schools.  Sodas and other sugary drinks create too much blood sugar and fill a child with empty calories, adding to the problems. Some of these machines have been replaced with juice/water machines that should help eliminate some of those empty calories. 

If your child has diabetes, it is important for you to watch their food, drinks and snacks.  It is also important that you encourage them to eat healthier. 

For excellent tips on diet and diabetes health for children, check on the web at www.diabetes.org or www.jdrf.org. 

If you or someone in your family – especially one of your children – has diabetes, it is certain that there are many expenses that can be overwhelming to pay. 

If you and your child or spouse has diabetes just the lancets alone and the testing strips can cost $7,500 per year for two people.  After all, two people could have to test over 10 times total between the two of them every day.

If you have insurance, you may only have to pay 20% or 30% of that amount.  If you don’t have insurance, the whole amount is yours to deal with on your own.  That’s just the testing supplies.  Then we get to doctor visits and other services.  Again, depending on whether or not you have insurance and how good the insurance is, there are expenses attached to these services as well.

With the economy in the shape it is in, it is very difficult to make ends meet.  In addition, it is not an option for individuals with diabetes just not to take their medication or perform their blood glucose tests.  So, how is it possible to deal with the cost of diabetes?

One way that individuals are saving money on supplies and other diabetes costs involves searching the internet and other avenues of information to find deep discounts, coupons and other ways to save money.  Some other ways are to contact the health department, the community clinic, the local (or if necessary,the state or national) diabetes association or the local hospital for any information or discounts. 

Another thing that people are doing is participating in clinical trials.  During a clinical trial a person can get all their diabetes supplies and doctor visits at no cost, and could also get paid regularly to continue their participation in the trial.

Call manufacturers of glucose meters, tests strips and other supplies to see if they will send you some free supplies.  Many of them will do so somewhat regularly if they know you cannot afford to purchase the supplies.

Visit diabetes expos and fairs, which often feature sample products and will also put you face to face with representatives of these companies.  You can tell them the difficulties you are having getting supplies and usually they will be more than happy to find a way to help, since most companies have programs to help those who have obstacles to obtaining supplies

If you have diabetes and need supplies, the costs are making it too difficult, all is not lost.  There are ways to get supplies you need and not go broke.

The following article is longer than usual.  The theme of the article is so uplifting that it is featured in full.  If you or someone you love has diabetes, you have probably dealt with a Diabetes Educator and hopefully had a positive experience.  If you are a Diabetes Educator, keep up the hard work – you make a difference.
Diabetes Educators are Champions
Kim Higgins
10 November 2008

A champion is an ardent defender or supporter of a cause or another person; someone who fights for a cause.
Diabetes care creates its own culture. There is a passion that surrounds the caretakers of the diabetes community. It is the small successes that spark us to keep on until the next one. Diabetes care creates champions out of all of us. I’d like to mention just a few of the hundreds of diabetes educators I have met.
For many years, “Andy,” a nurse from Santa Rosa, California, has taken two weeks of her vacation time to travel to the Ukraine. She teaches a diabetes class in the local language and brings insulin and supplies she’s collected from around Northern California. The insulin is stored in a World War I bunker at 56 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure its freshness over the next year.
Parents bring their children by train from as far away as Moscow to obtain the life-giving hormone that will allow their children to continue growing. There is no intensive management or titration, just life and death. Each child is weighed and his or her insulin needs for the upcoming year are determined. This amount of insulin is then carefully issued to the parents for use over the next 12 months. Pregnant women arrive, anxious to learn how to safely deliver a healthy child. Glucagon is handed out to the families with the most fragile children who live on rural farms. These children would die if their seizures could not be abated. Andy is a diabetes champion.
Peggy Huang is a graduate of the Presbyterian School of Nursing in Philadelphia and is a certified diabetes educator, par excellence! Peggy developed the award-winning Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) many years before ADA certification. She co-founded the Diabetes Teaching Center at UCSF in 1977. Although retired as program coordinator, she continues to serve as a program consultant and sees patients for individual counseling.
Peggy was part of the original team to implement the concepts of intensive diabetes self-management in Northern California in 1974. She helped establish several other teaching programs and is a mentor to nurse educators in countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan, as well as those in the San Francisco Bay Area. From 1978 to 1992, she was the coordinator and principal instructor for the Diabetes Teaching Center.
Peggy is also an active advocate for educating Asian Americans with diabetes in the Bay Area. She is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. After retiring, she continued volunteering and set up a free diabetes clinic for the elderly. The San Francisco Chinese community now has facilities and services that would not have existed without Peggy’s passion and commitment. Peggy is a diabetes champion
Jeanie Hickey, RN, CDE, currently puts her passion into the Dogs for Diabetes program. She has donated time, energy, and her own hard work to train the dogs to alert on the scent of a person with diabetes becoming hypoglycemic. Jeanie fosters dogs in training, promotes their benefits to individuals at risk for severe hypoglycemia, participates in identifying recipients of a dog, and helps coordinate training and graduation. She even collects food, buys stuffed dogs to use as fundraisers, and visits any group interested in learning about these amazing dogs.
Jeanie also donates her summer to work at Bearskin Meadows, a diabetes camp in Northern California. The camp understands that diabetes is a condition that affects the entire family of a child with diabetes, including siblings and parents. Bearskin Meadow gives families a uniquely supportive community of peers and adults who truly understand the day-to-day challenges of living with diabetes.  Jeannie is a diabetes champion.
Molly Keane is one of our fallen diabetes heroes. Molly exemplified what a typical diabetes educator is: devoted to helping patients obtain the best control they can.  She often took phone calls from patients at night and on weekends.  If a patient needed extra care due to illness or pregnancy, she proactively called them and spoke to them daily or even more often if that was necessary.  In addition to her patient care, she took on the mentoring of new educators as an important role. She knew this would help even more patients.  She did this with compassion, wit, adaptability, and dedication.
Molly died in a tragic accident off the Sonoma coast last February when she tried to save her elderly dog from a rogue wave. Throughout her short life, she touched so many of us. Educators all over the western United States remember how Molly paid such close attention and how she made herself available to so many. She was full of caring and charisma. We are responsible for carrying Molly’s work forward. She inspires all of us.
Molly was one of us, an everyday diabetes champion.
We are all champions in the diabetes community. We are passionate. We are there for all the important moments in our patients’ lives. Take a moment every day in November, Diabetes Awareness Month to tell yourself what a great job you’re doing and to encourage yourself to make the changes you want to see in the world.

Reprinted from Diabetes Health.

This is Diabetes Month.  It is also the beginning of open enrollment for Medicare Supplements and other Medicare related choices, starting November 15th. 

This year, as in the past couple of years, there will be changes to premiums, changes regarding coverage and other changes that we aren’t even aware of yet.  One company who has come up with a positive change is Humana.

Humana has determined that preventative measures save money for everyone and reduce health problems for individuals.  As a result, Humana is offering changes in their Medicare Advantage and their prescription drug coverage. 
The company’s 2009 Medicare plans are designed to encourage members to take advantage of preventive health care services, better manage chronic conditions, and use programs that help members save money on prescription drugs. 

To help make the plans effective most of the participants with medical or medical and prescription coverage will not have to pay for: routine physicals, prostate screenings, mammograms, bone mass measurement, pap/pelvic exams, colonoscopy or flu vaccine.   Many mail order Tier 1 medications will also carry a $0 copayment.  In addition, test strips, lancets and glucometers will not cost participants any payment. Humana feels that prevention and control will help individuals stay healthier and will also save everyone money.  The millions of dollars spent on treatment as individuals’ symptoms worsen can be avoided by prevention, early treatment, lifestyle and diet changes, and other methods of controlling diseases such as diabetes.

Humana plans will also feature discounts on over the counter medication as well as vision and dental care.

It is important to research the plans that will be available for 2009 while you have time during open enrollment.  Though Humana is offering excellent benefits, compare them to other plans and make sure that the premiums will fit your budget. 

If you have diabetes, you probably test your blood glucose levels daily, and you probably do this more than once a day.  Monitoring your blood glucose levels is extremely important because it will keep you informed as to what is happening with your diabetes.  It can tell you whether it’s time to see your doctor and adjust or change medications to keep things under control.

Traditionally, is has been recommended that individuals with diabetes test their blood glucose levels just before eating and then again about two hours after their meal.  The reason for this is to determine whether your blood glucose spikes after you have eaten.

Recent research has shown that taking your blood glucose level before eating is important, however waiting two hours after a meal to take it again is too long. 
The research has revealed that the blood glucose “spike zone” actually happens at about 30 to 45 minutes after a meal.  This is now considered the right time to take the blood glucose reading, rather than 2 hours after eating when the spike is over, the blood glucose is down and the results could lead to a false sense of security.

The studies have shown that controlling spikes in blood glucose can protect an individual with diabetes from serious health problems such as sight disease, heart disease and stroke.  Because of these findings, researchers are looking at a way to get this information out to doctors, health care professionals, and even the American Diabetes Association, who all go by the standard of testing at the two hour mark after a meal.  As a result, they are missing the 30 to 45 minute spike which could help them keep their patients with diabetes healthier.

If you are testing 2 hours after a meal, try testing 30 to 45 minutes after a meal and then 2 hours after a meal for a few days or a week and see if there is a difference between the two readings.  This should tell you the real reading, and let you know if you should talk to your doctor about how to control the spikes after a meal.

If you have diabetes and you are suffering from obesity or heart problems – especially involving plaque buildup in your arteries – your doctor may have prescribed Avandia to help reduce the amount of plaque. 

Recent studies have revealed some questions regarding Avandia..  Studies included individuals taking Avandia, a newer medication and an older, less expensive drug that comes in generic form called glipizide and sold under the brand name Glucotrol, which is produced by Pfizer.  Avandia is produced by GlaxoSmithKline in Britain.

When compared to one another, both medications did very little to eliminate plaque in the arteries, though Glucotrol and its generic glipizide did better than Avandia.  The problem with Avandia in particular is that are questions regarding whether Avandia puts patients at risk for heart problems, including heart attacks.
The American Diabetes Association has issued warnings stating that people should avoid using Avandia until safety issues are resolved.

Doctors tested individuals from nearly 20 countries.  They also tested the individuals at the beginning of the study regarding weight and plaque and then tested the same individuals 18 months later.  All individuals had type 2 diabetes linked to obesity.  Since this combination of symptoms

Doctors who worked on the research state that Avandia is a good medication and can help with plaque, but should not be used to treat diabetes because safer and more effective medicines are available.  They feel that Avandia should be used with extreme caution.

In addition to the Avandia study, the same research was done with a similar medication from Japan, and Avandia’s main competitor Actos, and the results were much better than Avandia’s results.  Actos had much more success in reducing plaque and has much lower incidents of side effects. Larger studies will be completed within two years.

If you take Avandia, ask your doctor about Actos and glipizide, which are considered more effective and have less side effects than Avandia.

As most of us know, this year has been a very active hurricane season.  We are not even at the end of the season yet and the most recent hurricane starts with the letter “P”, leaving only 10 letters until we reach the end of the alphabet!

Hurricanes are a force of nature that folks in the Gulf States and southeast states have lived with for years, though many of the hurricanes in more recent years have been much more forceful and destructive than in past decades.

Every area of the country – and the world – has its forces of nature.  The west – especially California – has earthquakes.  The middle has tornadoes, and much of the north, middle and eastern United States have snow and ice storms as well as blizzards.

Because of these conditions which often come with little or no warning, it is important to have some sort of emergency kit packed.  Most people know what they would grab if they had to leave their homes quickly, but many do not have a small bag packed.  An emergency kit makes good sense – simply a sweater or sweatshirt, change of undies and clothes, some water and water purifier tablets or filter (which can be purchased at most stores that sell camping equipment), and whatever else you feel is important to take with you.

One of the most important things that people fail to pack in an emergency kit is their medication.  Some folks can get away with not taking their meds; however, if you have diabetes, high blood pressure or heart issues, it is essential to pack medicine in your kit.  A person on insulin or other diabetes medication must take their meds when prescribed or the results could be fatal.  The same goes with other illnesses.

It is essential that you pack enough to last for at least a few days.  Some people make the mistake of packing enough for a day or so, but as the situations with many of the disasters we have seen in the past few years show, it is very possible to be out of your home for a week or more.  If you have at least several days worth of medication (a week’s worth is suggested), as well as your blood glucose meter, blood pressure meter and any other normal supplies, there will be time for first aid/nurses/doctors wherever you temporarily go, to try to get you more medication as help becomes available.

So, as soon as possible, when you have a few minutes to spare, put together a small emergency kit for each member of your family and include meds and any other basic items that are needed.  This does not have to be fancy.  Each person can have their items packed in a grocery bag, using zip-locks to keep individual items dry in case of flooding.  Then if you have to leave suddenly, each person can grab their bag, knowing that essentials – especially meds – are safely packed within to keep their health stable during an emergency.

There is a great need for diabetic supplies as the number of individuals with diabetes grows.  American Diabetes Wholesaler, a discount wholesale distributor of diabetic supplies, is well aware of just how great the need is.

As a result of this, the American Diabetes Wholesaler has donated $10,000 in diabetic supplies to Andy Mandell (Mr. Diabetes) and the Defeat Diabetes Foundation. 

Andy Mandell has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of diabetes.  His historic 10,000+ mile “Wake Up and Walk” – a journey on foot around the perimeter of the United States – has been bringing awareness to diabetes and its symptoms as well as its prevention. 

“We are very pleased to receive the free diabetic supplies from American Diabetes Wholesale,” said Andy Mandell, Mr. Diabetes(R) and Executive Director of Defeat Diabetes Foundation. He continued by saying, “The diabetes testing supplies will get into the hands of people who really need them and will encourage more testing, which is key to improving the health of someone who has diabetes and avoiding serious complications of the disease.”

Chris Maguire, co-founder of American Diabetes Wholesale stated that it was a very easy decision to donate the supplies to Andy and the Defeat Diabetes Foundation. Mr. Maguire continued on to say that American Diabetes Wholesale admires Mr. Diabetes(R) and his tireless effort and programs that have helped increase awareness about pre-diabetes, prevention and diabetes self management.”

The mission of American Diabetes Wholesale is to keep diabetes supplies affordable to everyone.  The company offers many name brand diabetes supplies at a 60% discount making them available to individuals who need them.

For more information regarding Mr. Diabetes and the Defeat Diabetes Foundation, you can browse their website at www.DefeatDiabetes.org.