Taking Action

Tomorrow is Election Day. A day when any registered voters the age of 18 and up get to have a say as to who is making decisions that affect us and our families and communities. So please go out and vote tomorrow. Find out which one of your local represenatives support healthcare initiatives, our schools; who makes changes that count. And if you don't get a chance to vote tomorrow, or do and the people you wanted in office don't get voted in, let your voice be heard other ways. The ADA needs advocates willing to just send a simple prefilled out email to their representatives as issues come up. They do all the work for you, all you have to do is take a few minutes to go to the website. Senators Clinton and Collins are trying to pass a bipartisan bill that would help support research and proper care for gestational diabetes. Check out the link below for more information about the bill: http://www.diabetes.org/advocacy-and-legalresources/federal_legislation/Gestational.jsp

All you have to do is go to their advocacy center to sign up to get email notifications to take action on bills that effect diabetes healthcare in general.

Another movement to keep an eye on and sign their petition is Unite for Diabetes at http://www.unitefordiabetes.org/ It was an eye opening reminder to me that we live in a wealthy, priviliged nation where we don't have to worry about refridgerating our insulin, or even obtaining it for that matter. Diabetes is considered a pandemic, and if prevenative education measures are not made by the global community, it will only continue to effect more and more people. Who may or may not have access to the healthcare we do in this country (yes, I realize that there are about 44 million uninsured people in the USA, but that is a whole other debate for another day).

Diabetes facts to ponder when considering how to help:

1 in 10 healthcare dollars are spent on diabetes in the US each year.

22% of the US population, or 50 million adults have Metabolic Syndrome which places them at high risk to develop Type 2 diabetes and heart disease if they don't change their lifestyle.

41 million Americans are considered to have pre-diabetes, or fasting blood glucose levels between 100-125. These individuals often already have signs of the effects of above normal blood glucose on their blood vessels.

This disease isn't going away. It isn't the only disease out there, and I fully support research for other devastating illnesses. This one happens to effect billions of people around the world in ways no one without diabetes can understand. Unless they are a parent (=hero) of a child with diabetes or know someone with it, most people don't get that diabetes isn't "just a touch of sugar" or that there is no such thing as "borderline diabetes". But we can change that. One voice at a time.