Saturday, November 8, 2008

American Diabetes Month

Around here, a lot of folks get diabetes and it makes many of them sick. Genetics, poor diet and lifestyle make south Louisianians of all stripes sitting ducks for the malady. Diabetes, on a personal note, lead to the death of my father. For the most part, however, the kind of diabetes that Americans get is adult-onset and is preventable. The key to knowing how to prevent it is knowledge, and the Internet is chock full of good anti-diabetes information.

The American Diabetes Association has information for laypeople, doctors and even the newly diagnosed, telling people how to avoid the disease or how to manage it if they have it.

Medline Plus, a service of the National Library of Medicine, is a top-notch source of information on all health topics, but has especially good information on diabetes.

The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC) is a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a sub-group of the National Institutes of Health.

The Center for Disease Control's Diabetes Public Health Resource has up-to-the-minute information on diabetes prevention and treatment.


The Mayo Clinic Diabetes Center
has a useful question-and-answer section.

Nutrition.gov is the government's website telling us what scientific research says is a good idea to eat--and not to eat.

So that could get you started. Also, be sure to check out the library's card catalog to see what we have in the system about diabetes.

I do hate to be dramatic, but it might just save your life.

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