Roxane Cummings, Rural Health & Nutrition Agent
November is National Diabetes Month. If you live in Bamberg County, odds are that you or someone you know is living with diabetes. In fact, according to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes affects over 37 million Americans.
What is diabetes? Diabetes is a disease that causes blood glucose or blood sugar levels to rise to higher than normal. This is also called hyperglycemia. When you eat, your body breaks food down into glucose and sends it into the blood. Insulin then acts as a key to open the door to the cells and allow the sugar from the blood to enter the cells. The cells use the sugar to produce energy.
When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or it cannot use the insulin it does make efficiently. This causes your blood sugar levels to rise higher than normal. While diabetes is a progressive disease, life-style changes are effective.
Clemson Extension’s Rural Health and Nutrition team offers chronic disease prevention and self-management programs to help manage your diabetes and either delay or prevent complications.
The Health Extension for Diabetes program is a free diabetes support program recognized by the American Diabetes Association as a practice-tested support program. The program is approximately 4 months long and includes a series of 8 education sessions and intermittent support sessions designed to help you learn more about diabetes and provide you with the necessary skills and support you need to successfully manage your diabetes. This program is for individuals who have been diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Know Diabetes by Heart is a free education session that aims to help participants better understand the link between diabetes and heart disease. By participating in this one-hour session, you will learn more about the risks related to diabetes and heart disease, how to take control of your risks, and how to connect to community and clinical resources. Anyone is eligible to participate.
Both sessions are available online or in-person. To learn more or to register for a session, please email our County Rural Health & Nutrition Agent, Roxane Cummings, at roxanec@clemson.edu. Remember, you are your own best advocate for your health. Take charge of your health and learn more about steps you can take to live a healthier life!
Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.
