Buckeye Offers Tips on Diabetes Prevention and Management
Date: 11/08/17
Recognize your Risk for Diabetes.
Detect symptoms early. Prevent disease. Improve your life.
Buckeye Health Plan and Diabetes Overview
- Buckeye Health Plan is an active partner in helping members prevent chronic, life altering diseases.
- Buckeye Health Plan is a managed care plan that coordinates health care services for more than 320,000 Ohioans through Medicaid, Medicare and the Health Insurance Marketplace.
- November is National Diabetes Awareness Month and we want to spread an urgent message for Ohioans: Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in Ohio and the United States -- but it doesn’t have to be this way.
- It’s estimated that more than 8 million Americans have type 2 diabetes but do not know it and another 86 million Americans are at risk for developing it (known as prediabetes).
- Helping our communities understand this disease, and hopefully preventing its spread, is part of Buckeye’s commitment to transforming the health of the community, one person at a time.
What is Diabetes?
- Diabetes occurs when the pancreas can no longer make enough insulin to control blood sugar.
- While this can happen for a number of reasons, it’s most commonly from an auto-immune response (type 1), or an inability of cells to respond to insulin correctly (type 2).
- Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95 percent of diabetes cases in the United States. Every 23 seconds, somebody in this country is diagnosed with diabetes.
- Your risk of developing type 2 diabetes is associated with both genetic and lifestyle factors including obesity, poor diet and a lack of physical activity.
- Diabetes kills more Americans every year than AIDS and breast cancer combined.
Who’s most at risk?
- The prevalence of diabetes increases as individuals age.
- Black Ohioans were found more likely to die due to complications from diabetes in 2012 than their white peers (43.4 per 100,000 versus 24.3 per 100,000, respectively).
- Ohio adults with lower household incomes and lower educational attainment had a higher prevalence of diabetes in 2012 compared with those having higher incomes and more education.
- Diabetes is on the rise in Ohio – the prevalence of adult diabetes rose from 12.5% in one year, from 10.4 percent of Ohioans diagnosed with the disease in 2013 to
- 11.7 % of Ohioans diagnosed in 2014.
Detecting Diabetes
Many symptoms of diabetes may not seem serious so it’s important to watch for potential signals that you’re at risk. Symptoms of diabetes include:
- Increased thirst
- Increased hunger, especially after eating
- Dry mouth
- Frequent urination (sometimes more often at night)
- Unexplained weight loss
- Weakness or feeling tired
- Blurred vision
- Numbness or tingling in the hands and feet
- Cuts and sores that heal slowly
- Itchy and dry skin, generally in the vaginal or groin region
- Frequent yeast infections
- Frequent infections of the skin and gums
Preventing Diabetes
Diabetes is a condition related to blood sugar but eating sugar doesn’t cause diabetes. However, if you are overweight you can develop resistance to sugar and may need to cut down on the amount of refined sugars you consume.
Diabetes is especially concerning for pregnant women. Heart defects in babies have been tied to diabetes, so women who have diabetes or are at risk for diabetes need to work with their doctor to keep blood sugar levels in normal ranges.
We can all reduce our risk for diabetes by:
- Eating a healthy, balanced diet
- Exercising
- Losing weight – losing just 7 percent of your body weight can significantly reduce your risk of diabetes
- Limiting or avoiding tobacco and alcohol
- Reducing stress
Buckeye’s Care Management Program for Diabetes
- Buckeye’s care management program helps members with diabetes by:
- Providing frequent check-ins with members to be sure they are sticking to their medical plans
- Providing guidance around doctor appointments and directions for care
- Arranging Buckeye transportation to and from doctor appointments if needed
- Becoming a Buckeye member’s support team and cheerleader, helping every member achieve his or her health goals.
Sources:
http://www.healthpolicyohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SHA_FullReport_08042016.pdf
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases_conditions/hic_Diabetes_Basics
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/basics/symptoms/con-20033091
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/basics/lifestyle-home-remedies/con-20033091