National Diabetes Month: Preventing Diabetes Problems

National Diabetes Month: Preventing Diabetes Problems

How many Mississippians do you know? Is it more than seven? If you said yes, then you probably know someone with diabetes. 1 in 7 Mississippians have diabetes. That’s about 333,000 people, which is why diabetes is a priority at UProot.

At UProot, we talk a lot about preventing diabetes, but today we want to discuss National Diabetes Month and how to prevent the problems associated with diabetes.

Video Courtesy of the National Institute of Health

Diabetes is a chronic disease, but it also causes other chronic conditions. National Diabetes Month is a time for communities across the country to bring attention to diabetes. This year’s focus is on taking action to prevent health problems associated with diabetes.

Everyone can benefit from taking charge of their health. For those with diabetes, it’s especially important. Taking charge can help prevent diabetes health problems.

The changes in blood sugar caused by diabetes can damage your kidneys and blood vessels, leading to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.

Problems can pile on. High blood pressure and kidney damage lead to other chronic conditions, and these aren’t the only problems diabetes can cause. Some are well known, such as neuropathy, kidney disease, and eye problems.

However, people may not think about the links between diabetes and depression, cancer, and sleep apnea. 

Fortunately, most health conditions that result from diabetes can be prevented or managed by the same changes that manage diabetes itself.

  • A healthy diet.
  • Daily exercise.
  • Medication.
  • Monitoring and managing blood sugar.
  • Monitoring and managing blood pressure.
  • Keeping cholesterol low. 

Managing diabetes can be hard. If you feel down, sad, or overwhelmed, learn about healthy ways to cope with stress. Consider talking to a mental health counselor or joining a support group.

Medication can help with all of these problems, and for many people, it may be necessary. Be sure to talk with your doctor or pharmacist if you have trouble taking your medicines on time or at the correct dose.

These changes may seem intimidating, but they’re easy enough for the average person to achieve – and much less daunting than the problems the disease can cause.

It can seem daunting at first, but most of these changes are small, sensible, and available to people at any age. 

Lifestyle changes include things like calorie counting, food substitutions, and of course, moderate physical activity, like walking outside daily. Over months and years these small changes really add up. The Mississippi State Department of Health Office of Preventive Health and Health Equity partners with healthcare providers to offer free classes in these health basics for diabetes prevention and management.

These changes become a part of our culture when Mississippians come together to support each other in making them a part of their everyday life – for themselves and others.

Diabetes exists at the intersection of the three pillars of UProot’s plan to improve the state’s health:

  • Obesity
  • Chronic Disease
  • Social Determinants of Health

Preventing diabetes – and the health conditions it can cause – goes beyond National Diabetes Month!

Read through the updated State Health Improvement plan and find a way to help Mississippi reach our goals. You can read our news section to see success stories and if you know of a health improvement in Mississippi, let us know!

Creating a Culture of Health: Health Literacy Month

Creating a Culture of Health: Health Literacy Month

One of our goals for improving the health of Mississippi is to increase health literacy.  Health literacy is a Social Determinant of Health, and improving it was one of the original goals we set in 2022, and updated in 2024. What IS health literacy, and how can we improve it?

Thankfully, October is Health Literacy Month, a time to recognize the importance of making health information easy to understand and the health care system easier to navigate.

So, what is health literacy? Health Literacy is when you can find, understand, and use information on health-related decisions and actions for yourself and others.

Here, we’ll see:

Finding information

Health literacy begins with finding information. According to the CDC, more Americans than ever are using information technology to communicate with their healthcare providers. That is one of many reasons why one of our goals at UProot is to expand broadband internet access. 

However, just having an internet connection doesn’t mean that you can find useful information. Much of the information available online is poor quality – at best.

Even quality, factual information may not be of use. For example, you may go online and learn a number of great ways to prevent high sodium from increasing your blood pressure. You can use food nutrition labels to help avoid sodium. However, if high sodium isn’t the cause of your high blood pressure, then that information, while good and factual, does not help you. 

This is why communication with a healthcare provider is so important. It is the best way to ensure that you can properly use the information you find. This may be during a regular checkup, a call or email to your doctor, a visit you schedule, or a telehealth appointment. 

Communicating in a Healthcare Setting

However you do it, communication is key to understanding public health. But health literacy isn’t just for patients and the general public. That’s why one of our goals is to provide more health literacy training for healthcare providers.

Doctors, nurses, and other professionals go through a great deal of training and education that requires them to understand a specific set of language and concepts. This vocabulary and mindset allows them to communicate effectively and efficiently – with one another.

Even a careful and competent healthcare provider can slip into jargon, or believe that the patient in front of them understands what they are talking about. 

For the provider, health literacy is more than just defining terms and explaining health conditions. It requires time to connect with a patient, talking to them, and making sure that they understand the instructions for their medication routines and special diets. 

Patients who are health literate are more likely to trust their provider, especially if that provider is a source of easily understood, jargon-free information. 

As a check, healthcare providers often ask patients to describe HOW they will follow instructions. Getting more providers to do this is a goal for increasing health literacy.

For pediatricians, communicating with parents is key.

This isn’t just for doctors explaining neurology. Pharmacists, insurance company representatives, and other healthcare navigators should all take steps to orient the public on what is happening during an encounter, and limit their use of jargon. 

Example: Nutrition labels

Nutrition labels on packaged food are a great example of health literacy. Finding them is easy enough. Understanding them is the second step. Fortunately, it’s not particularly difficult, and there are new requirements to enhance their readability. These requirements ensure that caloric content is centered, and in bold print.

Understanding other aspects of the nutrition label involves a concept known as the “recommended daily value.” This is exactly what it sounds like, an amount that the USDA has determined to be a healthy amount for the average American.

Actually using nutrition labels, however, can be a bit more involved. Each label will give the amount in a single serving, and it will tell you how large that serving is, and how many servings are in the container. You don’t have to eat a serving. You can eat more or less, and this changes the way that you use a nutrition label.

This is where things can get confusing. Take this example. If the serving size is given as 2/3 of a cup, and you eat half that – 1/3 of a cup – then you would half everything on the label. 115 calories, 5% of your total daily fat, 10% of your added sugars, etc.

But there are 8 servings in this container. You could eat two servings, or 1 & 1/3 (4/3) cups. This would be 460 calories, 20% of your daily fat, 40% of added sugars.

People who have different needs for things like sugar and sodium will have to do a little more work. You may need only half as much sodium, or more iron than average.

Food labels have been designed to be easy to find, understand, and use. They are one of the most commonly encountered bits of health information.

Get involved!

Most health information is a little harder to find than nutrition labels!

You or your organization can get involved with these efforts to improve health literacy – a social determinant of health.  Health literacy leads to better health outcomes, and more trust in doctors. With the goal of health literacy in mind, you can tailor your public health activities to help people find, understand, and use health-related information.

After all, Health Literacy when you can find, understand, and use information on health-related decisions and actions for yourself and others.

Whether you’re trying to enhance health literacy in yourself or others:

Communication is a two-way street. Listen to your community, then see what community health measures work by visiting the “What Works” page, which has accessible fact sheets on many health issues, including obesity and Social Determinants of Health, available online or to be printed out.

Read through the updated State Health Improvement plan and find a way to help Mississippi reach our goals.

You can read our news section to see success stories and if you know of a health improvement in Mississippi, let us know!

Creating a Culture of Health

Creating a Culture of Health

Last month, we took a look at how UProot’s mission has evolved in the past couple of years. One important way to address the social determinants of health is to screen infants and children for many of the conditions that can be easily prevented or treated in childhood. 

One of our goals for 2024 is to increase the number of these childhood screenings in Mississippi. There are two tools currently on the table that are helping communities near you to reach this goal: Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visitations (MIECHV) and Medicaid screenings.

Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visitations (MIECHV)

MIECHV is a home-visitation program for families with children up to five years of age. A new program will let families in 16 counties take advantage of free support from trained professionals, if they choose to.

These professionals teach skills like safe sleep for infants, breastfeeding, and can connect families to childhood and postpartum health screenings.

We know that these at-home visits work. They are a proven method for reducing infant and maternal mortality and childhood diseases, and can improve the health of the mother.

MIECHV works on a system where parents take the lead. This system, “parents as teachers” is an evidence-based model for informing parents.

Interested parents or families can sign up here. If your county will have the MIECHV program available, make sure that your community knows about it.

Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT )

Our partners are also working with Medicaid to get more Mississippians into Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT ) programs.

EPSDT provides things like physical exams, immunizations, lab tests and health education. These simple and cost-effective steps make a big difference in health, especially when done for children and adolescents, who are more likely to be covered by Medicaid.

What’s Next?

You or your organization can get involved with these efforts to prevent disease and health problems, and improve our social determinants of health. Help drive signups for MIECHV if you’re in a target county.

See what community health measures work by visiting the “What Works” page, which has fact sheets on many health issues, including obesity and Social Determinants of Health, available online or to be printed out.

Read through the updated State Health Improvement plan and find a way to help Mississippi reach those goals.

You can read our news section to see success stories and if you know of a health improvement in Mississippi, let us know!