Diabetes awareness raised

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According to Health Canada, more than two million people have diabetes. The disease is responsible for the deaths of more than 5,000 people each year.

Whenever a meal is consumed, the body changes the sugars and starches in the food to energy (glucose). In order to do this, insulin, a hormone that is produced by the pancreas, is needed.

Insulin tells the body how much glucose is required, so there won't be a build-up of sugar in the bloodstream. Without insulin, glucose levels increase in the bloodstream and this is called diabetes.

If left untreated, diabetes begins to damage blood vessels, which can affect the heart, cause strokes, and lead to blindness, kidney disease and limb amputations.

To help raise awareness about the dangers of diabetes and how to control it, the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Aboriginal Urban Diabetes Initiative of the Alberta Native Friendship Centre Association held the Alberta Conference on Diabetes and Aboriginal People in Edmonton on March 25 and 26. The two-day conference hosted more than 100 people and 25 guest speakers to discuss Type 2 diabetes as it relates to Aboriginal people.

"In the beginning we anticipated people attending only from Alberta, but it turned out that we had people from B.C., as far away as P.E.I., from Saskatchewan, northern Alberta and southern Alberta," said Patricia Lo, the association's diabetes program co-ordinator.

Funded by Health Canada through the Canadian Diabetes Strategy, discussion topics included diabetes and colonization. The workshop was facilitated by Richard Jenkins and dealt with the change of lifestyle for Aboriginal people since European contact and how that change of diet and lack of mobility have contributed to the dangers of diabetes in Aboriginal communities.

The treatment of diabetes workshop, which touched on the western medicine being used to treat diabetes, as well as traditional healing methods, was facilitated by Valerie McCollough. The active living workshop was facilitated by Trina Bandi, who discussed the importance of being physically active to prevent and control diabetes.

The cultural diversity training was facilitated by Francis Whiskeyjack and included teachings on the medicine wheel.

The Aboriginal Diabetes Wellness Project was facilitated by Kathleen Cardinal and Vanessa Narvelli, who have produced a handbook called Diabetes Information to Share with Families.

Keynote speaker Dr. Jodi Abbott talked about young people and diabetes.

"More and more research is revealing that youth in their teenage years are getting Type 2 diabetes, whereas, in the past, Types 2 diabetes only happened to adults 45 years and older," said Lo. "They are finding that this is happening with predominantly Aboriginal youth, and not so much with non-Aboriginal youth. That is why Type 2 diabetes is so much of a concern to us, because now young kids are getting the disease and that is not what is supposed to be happening. It is supposed to be an older person's disease."

A number of booths were set up with information from health care professionals who worked in the field of diabetes. They shared some of the tools that have been found effective in creating awareness.