Hi! I am Missy Creed, a librarian from the Library for Health Information, or the LHI.
The LHI is a consumer health library located in the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in
Columbus Ohio. The LHI provides free, reliable, easy to understand health resources for medical
center patients, their families and the community. Medical center clinicians can also refer patients
to the LHI if patients are interested in finding more information on their own about their
health diagnoses. Today, the LHI is highlighting diabetes.
We are chatting with Jenny Shrodes from the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center’s Diabetes
and Metabolism Research Center. Jenny is a diabetes educator. I'm going to let Jenny
introduce herself, the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center, and maybe share an interesting
fact about herself. Jenny? Hi, thanks for having me today. I'm Jenny
Shrodes, and I am a diabetes educator for the outpatient care at Ohio State. And an
interesting thing about myself is that I've cooked in the Culinary Institute of America
Kitchens in Hyde Park, and I won first place in a cooking contest. Wow, congratulations!
Thank you! I read in the Spring 2020 edition of the NIH
MedlinePlus magazine about prediabetes and diabetes. Jenny, could you tell us what prediabetes,
Type 1 diabetes, and Type 2 diabetes are? Absolutely. Any kind of diabetes is an indication
that blood sugar is too high, or above the normal parameters. Type 1 diabetes means that
a person's body does not produce insulin anymore, and therefore they have to inject it. Insulin
is what helps us store our sugar and use it for energy. Type 2 diabetes is an indication
that blood sugar is too high; however at the beginning of this condition, people are still
producing insulin. Over time, they may not produce insulin and they may need to inject
insulin. Prediabetes comes before Type 2 diabetes, and it's a slight elevation in overall blood
sugar, that can usually be addressed with lifestyle changes.
Thanks! Who gets diabetes? Oh - good question. There is a huge hereditary
component to this. So with Type 2 diabetes, we expect that somebody who has a family member
with Type 2 diabetes is more at risk; and also the other risk factors for Type 2 diabetes
are leading a sedentary lifestyle, carrying extra weight than is ideal, and certain ethnicities
will, are prone to getting diabetes. And then Type 1 diabetes is a little bit different.
We have lots of people who have diabetes whose parents don't have Type 1 diabetes, and they
have no idea of any family member who had Type 1 diabetes. But it's kind of like winning
the gene pool - both parents had to donate that gene for the person to have diabetes.
What are some signs of diabetes? Ah. Well, the tell-tale signs are somebody
who, all of a sudden, is very thirsty and drinking lots of water, and probably urinating
more than usual. Lots of people report that they feel very tired, because when you have
high blood sugar that is uncontrolled, that fatigues your body.
I've heard of blurry vision and losing weight as well. Could those not necessarily be the
top indicators, but indicators that, hey, I need to go see a health provider?
Yes, absolutely - it certainly depends on how long you have been having the high blood
sugar, but you're right - weight loss is an indication and blurry vision is something
people tend to experience when they do have high blood sugar.
Thanks so much to Jenny Shrodes for joining me today. For more information about the Diabetes
and Metabolism Research Center, please call 614-688-6251.
To obtain copies of some diabetic-friendly recipes, please contact the LHI.
For more information and free handouts on diabetes, please contact the Library for Health
Information at health-info@osu.edu. To learn more about the Library for Health Information,
please visit our web site at go.osu.edu/hsl-lhi.
See you next time!