On November 14, we celebrate the World Diabetes Day. This year’s slogan is dedicated to problems related to diabetes? common to both sexes and separate ones. Both women and men with diabetes more often than other people suffer from ischemic heart disease, stroke, develop kidney failure, and lose their eyesight. On the other hand, diabetes generates a lot of differences and it turns out that it actually has gender.
Marlena Raźniak – fell ill with type 1 diabetes at the age of 28, having a husband and a son of less than 3 years old. She has been living in Germany for a year and talks about the changes in her treatment and the chances she has received.
Andrzej Michalik will first take you on a canoe trip across the Vistula River, and then for a 550 km walk along the Polish beach to spread knowledge about the disease with which he lives 30 years.
Karolina Weilandt will encourage friendship with diabetes. Before accepting her illness herself, she strongly rebelled against the diagnosis. Today she tells us how she appreciates the benefits of self-control, but quickly adds that she will never let diabetes dominate her life.
Jerzy Magiera is an extraordinary person orchestra, who perversely made his illness “a way of life”. At the age of 16, he created a website about diabetes. Today, it is the oldest and largest diabetes portal on the Polish Internet – mojacukrzyca.org.
Since 2013, Weronika Kowalska has been sharing her life with diabetes with you through the blog bluesu- garcube.blogspot.com. In an interesting material, he proves that diabetes has an extraordinary gift of uniting people all over the world, even on the level of finding a common “diabetic” language.
Challenges in the treatment of diabetes
The publication was substantively supported by the Polish Diabetes Society, but it also enjoys the official partnership of the International Diabetes Federation.
In the introductory material, Prof. Maciej Małecki starts a debate on the situation in Polish diabetology. It outlines successes, sees the needs of patients, but also highlights the need for immediate changes and support for many topics. Dr. Shaukat Sadikot draws attention to the situation of women who are at risk of developing diabetes and those who are already suffering from diabetes. This explains the slogan of this year’s celebration.
Individualizing the patient’s treatment
Prof. Leszek Czupryniak answers many important questions. In an extensive interview, we learn how the diagnosis of pre-diabetes is carried out, we check who is most at risk of developing diabetes, how to prevent and delay the development of diabetes. As metformin therapy is now turning 60, we also ask about its role in the treatment and prevention of diabetes.
Prof. Dorota Zozulińska-Ziółkiewicz and Prof. Tomasz Klupa provide expert comments on therapeutic solutions that meet the needs of patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, to which Polish patients still have very limited access due to the lack of reimbursement. Thanks to this, you will learn about the impact of individualization of therapy on the patient’s comfort of life, as well as a lot of information about the new analog ultra-fast-acting insulin, which appeared in January 2017.
Prof. Małgorzata Muc-Wierzgoń is an important voice on the prevention of dangerous complications. This educational topic could not be missing, remember that a patient guided by prudence and accuracy, will certainly reduce or even completely exclude the appearance of late complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy and the risks associated with damage to blood vessels.
Therapeutic team guide
Dr. Iwona Kozak-Michałowska outlines the principles of diagnosing diabetes simplified by the Polish Diabetes Society, and also indicates the importance of retrospective glycemic assessment in patients with diabetes.
Prof. Grzegorz Dzida – Diabetes is a chronic disease with which the patient must live his whole life in the best health. It should not handicap people or exclude them from society. We must treat it in such a way that diabetics can live actively, work normally or study. Let us remember the heart in diabetes, lowering the cardiovascular risk and, consequently, extending the life of patients.
Dr. Krystyna Knypl is part of the call to take care of the heart of people suffering from diabetes. In the case of heart disease associated with diabetes, the control of blood glucose levels, adequate diet, blood pressure control, and cholesterol and triglyceride levels are of key importance for the effects of their treatment.
Family and diabetes
Imagine having to make decisions each day that your child’s health depends on. Day after day. 24 hours per day. No vacation. No weekend off. This is what the life of a parent of a child with type 1 diabetes looks like – explains Anna Michnikowska, editor-in-chief of the Szugarfrik monthly.
Monika Zamarlik – President of the Diabetes Federation tells us that mothers with type 1 diabetes often report to the Federation, they admit that they are lonely in caring for their sick children, they lack help from their husbands and partners. Most often, they quit their jobs to ensure the child’s constant care. Hence the idea of the pilot project “No mom can be alone with diabetes”. Details can be found in the publication.
The power of femininity in the fight against diabetes. You need to know as much as possible about diabetes and not stop at the knowledge already acquired, but continue to deepen it. What is the strength and role of women in the fight for health? You will find out in the material of Renata Urbanek – Chairwoman of the SED section “Women – Women” and Beata Stepanow – President of the Diabetes Education Association.
You can read the whole thing here.