On Saturday October 18, 2008, American Diabetes Wholesale participated in the American Diabetes Assocation’s Fort Lauderdale Step Out! Fight Against Diabetes Walk.  The event was held at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, FL.  There was a large turnout of walkers and volunteers.  With music, food, volunteers, and excited walkers, the walk was a success!  Every dollar that is raised at an event like this makes a difference.

ADW handed out free meters to those who had diabetes or knew somebody with diabetes.  Also, there were 5 lucky recipients that won either a free Splenda Cookbook by Marlene Koch or an Eat Smart Nutrition Scale.

The ADW Power Walkers team had about 20 team members walking the route around the Bank Atlantic Center.  We were also able to raise nearly $2,000 for the ADA and the fight against diabetes.  Below are several pictures from the event.

This past Saturday was our local ADA walk.  It was down where the Panthers play their home games, and they just so happened to have a  home game on Saturday too.  So I was faced with a dilemna, do I stay down there from 11 a.m. until 7 when the game starts and go over the Sawgrass Mall.  Or do I go home and then come back down for the game?  Or, do I just not go to the game at all?

The Panthers were having an open practice so I went in and watched it for a while.  As I was leaving I stopped at a table to pick up a schedule and a sales rep came over and gave me free tickets 9 rows behind the glass, so I couldn’t beat that.  We stopped over at the Sawgrass and decided we needed to go home and take a nap.  So that was the decision, drive home and then drive right back down.  After a fantastic game and talking with the sales rep, I received an early birthday present, season tickets to the Panthers!

Now, relating this all to my diabetes.  If I hadn’t of had diabetes, I would not have been at the walk, so I wouldn’t have gone to the open practice, nor received the free tickets.  If I didn’t receive the free tickets, I wouldn’t have met the sales rep, who would not have sold me season tickets, so I would have never became a season ticket holder.  So, thanks to my diabetes, I now get my name engraved into a seat at the Bank Atlantic Center.

Isn’t diabetes great!

This Saturday is our local ADA Step Out event.  So I will be there bright and early to get out there and walk around the Bank Atlantic Center, which I will also be there tomorrow night for the Panthers game!  I haven’t raised as much money this year as my goal was.  I wanted to try and reach the $2,000 mark, but only made it to $1,500.  Every extra dollar counts.  I love all the free goodies at these events too, makes me happy.

I ususally participate in 2 of the 3 area walks, but I was unable to do it this year, and could only do one, but it’s all good.

I haven’t been sleeping a lot lately.  I’ve been going through one of my insomniac times where I am up majority of the night, but I am being very productive and not just laying around in bed tossing and turning.  I’ve been doing a lot of reading and finally catching up on all the magazine subscriptions that I have been slacking on and months behind on.  Well I must be getting back to the Life of a Diabetic!

Last Saturday the American Diabetes Wholesale team participated in the 2nd Annual Feria de Salud Por Tu Familia at Tropical Park. This was a great event during Hispanic Heritage Month hosted by the South Florida American Diabetes Association. Several thousand local residents came out to Feria de Salud to help fight against diabetes in Miami’s neighborhoods that are most affected by diabetes.

Here are a few key stats on diabetes within the Hispanic community from the ADA:

* The prevalence of diabetes is 1.7 times higher in Hispanics than Non-Hispanic Whites
* 61% of the population is Hispanic in Miami-Dade County (19% in Florida and 7% in the United States)
* 8.6% Hispanics have been diagnosed with diabetes in Miami-Dade County
* 2.5 million or 9.5% of all Hispanic Americans aged twenty years or older have diabetes
* An estimated 16% of Cubans in the United States between the ages of 45 and 74 have diabetes
* Approximately 24% of Mexican Americans and 26% of Puerto Ricans in the United States between the ages of 45 and 74 have diabetes
* Estimated that by 2020, 44% of Hispanics over the age of 65 will have diabetes

ADW enjoy this great diabetes event and all the activities that were available for the families for everyone. The atmosphere included live music, dancing, nutritional information, cooking demonstrations, face painting for the kids, and much more….

Some photos of the event including our booth and banner on the performance stage.

Destination Diabetes had the privilege of talking with Dr. Richard Bergenstal, the Vice President of Medicine & Science of the American Diabetes Association. Dr. Bergenstal has dedicated 30 years of his career to making life better for people with diabetes.

Recently, the ADA surveyed 1,000 men with type 2 diabetes, age 40-60, as well as 1,000 female spouses of men who have type 2 diabetes. The survey assessed their general knowledge of type 2 diabetes and associated complications.

The ADA has information on its website dedicated to men’s health issues. For more information, please visit www.diabetes.org/menshealth.

Watch the interview here!

In this week’s newsletter, Jeanna Rhoulhac, CDE answers a series of questions regarding exercise. People with diabetes will benefit greatly from adding an exercise routine to their weekly regime. Benefits include reduced blood glucose levels, lower stress, increased energy, weight control, and a lower chance of developing cardiovascular diseases. Learn about different types of exercises, strategies, precautions, and more. Read the full article.

American Diabetes Wholesale will participate in the American Diabetes Association’s Annual Step Out Walk this coming Fall. Our team has already risen $1,500 and counting. You can help to create awareness about diabetes by donating to ADA Powerwalkers.

This week’s product spotlights are aimed to help jump-start your future exercise routine. Educate yourself! Choose from a variety of books from Rapaport Publishing to learn more about diabetes or how to prepare healthier meals. Once you have read about diabetes and spoken to your doctor about a workout routine, get the Omron Pocket Pedometer, HJ-112 to help keep track of how much steps and calories you burn. This device can be conveniently stored in your pocket, bag, and even on your belt. Now you can use the Omron Fat Loss Monitor with Scale HBF-400 to measure how much weight and body fat you have burned. Read more about our featured products.

Prepare a delicious meal that the whole family will enjoy. Learn how to create Stuffed Cabbage Rolls.

Read the entire newsletter

Lack of diabetes knowledge, thats what I want to talk about today.  There are a lot of people that don’t know what diabetes is, they heard of it, but don’t know what it means.  With there being more people with diabetes then just about any other disease, you would think people would have more knowledge about it, unfortunately they don’t.  For instance, when speaking to somebody yesterday i said I was diabetic and they replied back with, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear.”  So I replied back like any normal diabetic would, “Sorry?  Sorry for what?  Theres nothing to be sorry about, I can manage my diabetes, it doesn’t control my life.”

Also, I went to an ADA kick-off breakfast this morning and I always leave these type of events, extremely motivated to start testing more often.  Which also makes me think about the hard work these people do to spread awareness, and the ignorance of people who just don’t care.  I am coming up on my next A1C test, I have to get it done before my insurance runs out.  Is there anybody out there who has to pay for this testing out of pocket, how much does it run usually?

Also, I would like some feedback from my…. very few readers.  I come in every morning and have about 20-30 comments, but they are all spam.  I would like to have some more interesting material that people would want to comment on and make my blog a little better.  I am still some what new to the blogging, well I’ve been around for a year now.

Finally, it’s coming around the end of the subscription of one of my magazines and I want to start getting some more diabetes related ones, any suggestions from any of you?