By Shellie Branco

According to the California Department of Public Health, one out of ten adult Californians has diabetes. Nearly one in three is at high risk for developing the disease. The Central Valley ranks especially high in these areas.

Diabetes affects people from all backgrounds, young and old, and obesity is a risk factor. Diabetes requires careful monitoring and a healthy diet. It can be tough for people with diabetes and their families to cope with these lifestyle changes, considering diabetes can be confusing. Those who have relatives with the disease might have had a crash course in diabetes, but many only know it has something to do with eating sugar, obesity and genetics.

Diabetes educator Lydia Navarro has heard some unusual beliefs about the disease.

“With the Latino population, we get a lot of people saying that ‘susto’ (fright sickness) was one thing that gave them diabetes,” she says. “For example, someone had a car accident and they had fear, and that caused them to have diabetes.”

When Navarro hears myths like that, she gives patients the facts. Navarro runs a Spanish language diabetes support group in the small farming community of Orosi in Tulare County. It’s an effort by Kaweah Delta Hospital in Visalia to bring education to rural patients with little access to medical information.

Diabetes starts with the pancreas, Navarro says. The pancreas produces a hormone called insulin, which is the key that opens the body’s cells and allows them to absorb glucose, or blood sugar. Glucose, produced when the digestive system breaks down carbohydrates, provides fuel for the body. In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops making insulin. In Type 2, the pancreas makes insulin, but not enough. Contrary to popular belief, sugar is not deadly for people with diabetes, but they have to watch their carbohydrates.

The Orosi support group is held each month in the community room of a large apartment complex. Most of the group members are older adults with Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is treated with insulin injections, medications or both. It’s also managed with exercise and a healthy diet.

The group recently had its first meeting of the year. Navarro reminded the patients to get regular check-ups of their feet and other areas that diabetes can destroy.

One of the group’s members, Ofelia Sandoval, learned she had developed Type 2 diabetes during her pregnancy. It came back a year later.

“I was in denial because someone in my family died because of diabetes,” she says through a translator.

Ofelia takes pills to control the disease. She says she didn’t know anything about diabetes until she started going to the support group.

“It has helped me a lot because I have learned how to eat,” she says. “I also bring my daughter for her to learn how to eat healthy.”

The meetings aren’t all talk. Group members get in a little exercise by playing games. At their first meeting, they tossed balloons at each other and tried to keep them from hitting the ground. Bending down and throwing balloons turned out to be a total body exercise.

Navarro says about 90 percent of her patients are overweight. That’s one culprit for Type 2 diabetes, along with a family history of the disease. She says access to healthy foods is a big issue in the valley.

“It’s unfortunate because we are the capital of fruits and vegetables, but unfortunately, a lot of these people cannot afford those fruits and vegetables,” she says. “What they’re basically eating, they’re eating carbs – their beans, their rice, tortillas.”

If left untreated, the complications of diabetes are devastating. It can lead to foot or leg amputations, blindness, and it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Diabetes requires lifelong care, but it’s not the death sentence it was several generations ago. However, Navarro says people just entering the group often think so.

“They feel like they’re gonna only live for a year or two years and they have nothing to live for,” she says.

The myths surrounding diabetes are intimidating. But with knowledge and proper care, people with diabetes find out they can look forward to long, healthy lives.

Shellie Branco is a correspondent for Valley Public Radio. This report will air at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 20 to kick off a discussion about diabetes on the public radio station’s call-in show, Quality of Life. Tune in on the radio at KVPR 89.3 in Fresno and KPRX 89.1 in Bakersfield. Or listen online at www.kvpr.org. To call in to the show, dial 800-224-8989 or e-mail comments to talk@kvpr.org. An archived Podcast of the show will also be available online after it airs.