Reznet

Danger Ahead

By Jason Salter

KESHENA, Wis.—Being diagnosed with diabetes last January changed Chris Lechterman’s life.

“It forced me to make a lot of changes with my diet and exercise,” the Menominee tribal member said of his new, healthier lifestyle. “I lost 25 pounds since January.”

Lechterman, 25, was one of six speakers at the eighth annual Diabetes Conference Nov. 14 at the Menominee Nation Casino here. The gathering coincided with National Diabetes Month.

According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health, diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. It can cause serious health complications— including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure and lower-extremity amputations—and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

Since Europeans set foot on the North American continent, scores of diseases have plagued Native Americans and killed large numbers of them. The stubborn nature of diabetes makes it difficult to cure, one reason why it persists in Indian Country in alarming numbers, speakers said.

RELATED LINKS News story: “Diabetes on the rise in young Native Americans” Indian Health Service Diabetes Treatment and Prevention Web site CDC Native Diabetes Wellness Program Web site Menominee Nation Web site

The number of Native Americans age 35 and younger suffering from diabetes doubled to 12,313 in 2004 from 6,001 in 1994, an increase from 8.5 to 17.1 cases per 1,000 members of the population, according the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued Nov. 9 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings came from an analysis of patient data collected by the Indian Health Service.

Patricia Burr, diabetes nurse educator at the Menominee Tribal Clinic, said the importance of the Menominees’ conference cannot be understated.

“It’s important to raise awareness about diabetes,” Burr said. “This workshop is effective. People are getting the message. One lady I spoke with told me she likes coming to these workshops because it refreshes what she already learned, and it helps to get her back on track.”

Burr added people can easily fall back into unhealthy habits. Instruction given them at the diabetes conference helps to steer them to healthy lifestyle choices.

Warren “Buddy” Kaquatosh of Neopit, a Menominee reservation town, said he has been coping with diabetes for two years.

“These workshops are very helpful,” he said. “My wife and I both have diabetes, and this taught us how to take better care of ourselves. We’re more aware of our eating habits now, and we have something to follow.”

The couple “can manage our diabetes better,” he added. “I don’t have to take insulin. Everything I put in my system now I can keep track of it, so we’re both managing it pretty well.”

Making people more aware of the seriousness of diabetes was one of Lechterman’s goals in sharing his story.

“Diabetes is an epidemic,” he said. “I wanted to speak to the community so people are aware of how serious it is, even for people my age. Anyone can get it.

“When I was diagnosed, my blood sugar was so high it could have put me in a coma or killed me. But working with Patty [Burr] and the diabetes program at the clinic helps me manage it pretty well. I think I developed a good approach.”

Lechterman praised the Menominee clinic, saying he thinks that “it’s important for people to realize that the Menominee clinic has a good diabetes program. People at risk should get screened. You can prevent it if you detect it right away.”

The article was published originally by the Menominee Nation News and is used with permission.

Jason wrote his first computer program in 6th grade, designed and built a computer before finishing high school, and then went to MIT to become... a molecular biologist. The move from computers to molecular biology makes sense when you think about DNA as "programming code" and recombinant DNA technology as the means to reprogram organisms.

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