Do you have Type II diabetes? Are you worried that your family history or health factors put you at risk for diabetes?
If you’re an adult living with the disease (or have a diabetic loved one) in the Midcoast area, you now have more help in your fight to control your diabetes. Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick opened its Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology this week.
Hospital officials say the center provides a wide range of services, from medical care and education to proper nutrition, insulin pump training, and glucose monitoring.
According to Mid Coast Hospital there are more than 100,000 people in Maine who have diabetes, so opening a center in the Midcoast to provide care is critical. The new center should care for 700 patients in the Midcoast area.
Diabetes is a chronic disease. According to the American Diabetes Association, as people age, the risk of developing Type II diabetes increases. (People are born with Type I, or develop it at an early age.) Type II diabetes has many risk factors that are lifestyle-related, and that could be a reason why 25% of people over 60 in the US have developed the disease.
Diabetes Lifestyle Education
The lifestyle relationship is at the core of the care provided by the Mid Coast Center for Diabetes & Endocrinology. People living with diabetes need to learn about exercise, nutrition and medication management, and there have been many changes in management over the past decades. The center promotes lifelong health in diabetic adults through a multidisciplinary approach of medical care and patient education. The Center has medical teams that include a nurse practitioner, nutrition and diabetes management professionals and endocrinologists.
The teams provide people living with both Type I and Type II diabetes nutritional, medical and educational treatment so they can improve their understanding and control of their diabetes, which will improve their quality of life.
Click here for more information on the new Center, and don’t forget that you can get on-line info on diabetes care from the American Diabetes Association. In fact, take the ADA Risk Test and then make a call to your doc and the Mid Coast Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology if what you learn has you worried about your risks.