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Diabetes Education
April 1, 2008 |
Many local physicians say they treat or diagnose a case of diabetes almost
daily. Dr. Robert Casola is a Surgeon with the Southwest Florida Regional
Medical Center who says, “Our diabetics that is a large population for us. Many
of the diabetics we see we see quite a few young people basically starting at
the age of 35.” Those who work with diabetes patients say education is crucial
to learning how to live with the disease. Amy Carrol is a certified diabetes
educator with Lee Memorial Health System. She says, “We feel like a lot of the
reason people have so much trouble controlling their diabetes is due to lack of
knowledge. It’s only getting worse I mean there is a diabetes epidemic so we
want to make sure to get people as educated as we can.” Those are reasons why
Amy and several other diabetes educators offer hands on courses to help patients
and their families learn about the dos and don’ts of diabetes. “We like to do
very specific diabetes education for instance this outpatient class is a 12 hour
comprehensive course over three days,” Amy says. The classes cover everything
from healthy eating and exercise to medications and blood sugar monitoring. Amy
says so far the program has been quite successful. “The people that we’ve seen
who attend this class, because we follow up with them for a year, we’ve seen
great improvement in their blood sugar control and just overall compliance with
their diabetes regime.” If you’re interested in learning more about diabetes
education you can call 239-573-5720. The classes are now offered at all four
hospital campuses in the Lee Memorial Health System. |
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