The
they �.
Compared ith hite
Ameri Blacks are SO to
60% more likely to develop
diabetes. Among 0 der Black
o CD, diabetes is nearly
. " A fourth of all Black
WOIDCIl over the of 55 have
. ee the r te in white
. AND
N.W. _
y..'ashi.::Ml, D.C. 20077.ooeo
oar
TIle ·eamrODlDelIW
that· the geactic trait
for' tes vary, but all seem'�
associated with the -income
ituation many Blacks in
America cxpericDce.
"It should be dear by DOW to
everyoae • the social
cii bcfor
in this coUDtry much
CCOIlomic Black
community facel,· say Dr.
Gavin, -Diabct pUticularly
Type II {the most common
form of the· }, tracks with
poverty, ADd pcwerty carries as
extra baBJage the fact that,
among the poor, diabetes will
likely go undetected d under­
diagnOlCd.�
Obesity, a strong risk factor
for Type II, or DOIl-iuulin-de­
pendent, di bete ,i very
prevalent amoog Bia com­
pared with the � popula­
tion. Poor BlackS are more
likely to COOSUIDC diets WllIaIR'
iDg of inexpensive, processed
foods that are high in urated
fats and simple carbohydrates.
MISCO CEmO s
Dr. Gavin ys that miscon­
ceptions about diabetes abound
in the Black commuity. For ex­
ample, it is commonly
pre umed incorrectly that
diabetes is brought on by the
consumption of too much ugar.
Another more dangerous piece
of misinformation' that if the
per on with diabetes simply
avoids sugar, he or she will be all
rjght. He says that people too
often refer to their diabetes as
"s.ugar diabet " when they real-
" ought to think of . "f
. elp Af 'care
African till go hun ry.
Afric stiJI need more -.vater.
• Afric still go without health c reo
• Africans ill need emer.� assis�nc
• In short, Africans still oeed you!
Pleate .. � help Africare help.
MMe your generous gift �+.
� ! I
nt �O Nbelp Africare Ip."
Enclosed is my gift of:
o S25 0 SSO 0 S � 00 0 S500 0 S __ (specify other)
�:--------------��----------------
� ...-...;,..;�--.;;.;; STAT£: ZJP:_
a
ng
Am
. diabetca,·
The fad ' While catiog
isn't dvisable for a per­
IOD with diabetes, it· fat in the
diet that' more Iikdy to res
in obesi�1_ which can upset
blood supr and pomote
the develop.cDt of serious
complications over t){e oog
t�Gavin ys.
STRESS A CO RBuro
Also suspected of contibut­
iog to the large incidence of
diabetes among B cks is the
stress that can ome from
poverty. -Bein under­
employed, surroun ed by aime
and other negative experiences,
stayiag healthy' not easy
saddled' uch str
Gavin.
Por those who also are single
parents, r . ing children and
haviag to provide for them can
be especially onerous. "Single
parents can't afford to be ic "
says Gavin. "Time off from war
ot givi\ng in to
diabetes: One
woman' .tory.
While· the <Habet r te 0 mong BI ck
Americans overall, the incidence of the disease
among older Bl ck women is virtually epidemic.
Twenty-five percent of all Black women over the ge
of 55 ve diabetes, a rate that is time that of
similarly aged white women. This statistic is not lost -
on Dorothy Saunders.
A 61 year old Springfield, M chusett , woman,
Saunders was diagnosed with non-insulin d pendent
diabetes 10 years ago. .
-In her entry in this year's Jim "Catfish" Hunter
Diabetes Hall ofPame Award essay conte t, in which
she was a � described herself b ck then as,
"an overweight housewife who showed her love by
b' coo'"..... . "
....... .J,f,.
S dcwloped pt ... \Yea - r"
ness, fatigue, increased urin tion, unquenchable
thir and she felt awful. But what particularly
frightening the way her diabetes affected her
vision.
At first it burning sensation in the eyes. -
Then, colors appeared extraordinarily vivid: The
green of the grass and the blue of the ky were espe­
cially brilliant. Fmally, one morning she 100 ed into
the mirror and wasn't able to see herslef. She h d lost
her near-vision, anything close up blurred and
indistinct, although e could still make out things t
a distance .
She took a diabetes educatonal cl , but her
. felt like cotton candy and it was hard to retain
anything." Her h ds and feet felt cold all the time.
Whe poured milk into glass, she had to u e her
thumb to measure how much he h d poured. he
became very dependent on her husband, Walter.
Ho ver, although she felt very bel pless, she never
got depressed.
Relying on her religious faith for trength and her
doctor for direction, she change4 her health habits,
and after about . wee her sight returned. "It c­
tuaDy 't hard for me to do," she said. "I so
sick that I .. to do anything tha would help
HlGAN cITIZEN 13
is money lost. They can't afford
decent health coverage, which
can hasten the development of .
complications. Becau e they
can't fford to be . c , the
denial of illness becom a sur­
vival mcchanism."
Diabete and high blood
pressure are often found
together an thus constitute a
kind of "doUble Whammy" for
Bl . whom the in . dence
rate of both ailmen is much
higher than that of the general
population. One study of 200
diabetic Black men and women
showed that nearly 2/3 0 had
high blood pressure.
Diabetes can speed up the
progress of athero cler is, or
hard Ding of the arteri which
in turn promotes high blood
pressure and eventually c n
lead to heart attac or stroke .
And if high blood pr ure goes
untreated in omeone with
diabetes, it can h sten the
damage diabet - can cause in
the small blood vessels, even- .
tually harming the eyes and kid­
neys. The New Eng/and Journal
of Medicine recently reported
that Black are more th n 2 1/2
times more likely to de lop
endst ge renal (kidn y) disease
than whites.
PUBLIC
A REMEDY
lie awarene is the
I,. I lc in the way of
effective management of
diabetes in the Black com­
munity, ccording to G Yin.
"Economic improvement a
mean to better health care .
not going to be a quick fIX, so the
one area to start in is public
awareness," he says.
In f ct , the Americ n
Di betes Associ tion (ADA)
h recently begun a camp ign
called "Di bete . Ta e the Test.
Know the core," a public infor­
mation and screening pr am
designed to identify those
wb iabetes h yet to be
detected. It is being funded by
an educational gr (rom the
Upjohn Company, head­
quartered in Kal mazoo, -
Michigan which was founded by
a doctor witb diabetes.
The ADA is urging tb e
most t risk, Bl c Hispanics,
Asianl Americ n , N tive
Americans, those . a family
history of diabetes, the elderly
and pregnant women, to tea
::J,le blood test to see if they
. t have diabetes and to get
it attended to at a stage when it
is still tr bJe. For , if
obesity could be prevented in
nondiabetic people, it i es­
timatcd th 410,000 new
- of diabetes could' be avoided
each )UI' in this country.
"Tb.e focus of public a re­
ne , our defen e agai st
di bete , should shift from
'catcb up to prevent" y
GavQi e ha'le to intervene
early, and clearly it's more criti­
cal in e communities than in
other .. "