Today, Diabetes Hands Foundation announced the donation of $75,000 to six diabetes charities that help people with diabetes in need in the United States and Latin America. The money was raised through a grassroots online diabetes awareness campaign called Big Blue Test, supported by Roche Diabetes Care.

The Big Blue Test takes place every November leading up to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14. The campaign reinforces the importance of exercise in managing diabetes. Through Big Blue Test, Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF) called on people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, get active for 14 minutes or more, test again, and share the results at Bigbluetest.org. In the last three years, exercise decreased participants’ blood sugar level between 15 and 20 percent.

Roche’s support enabled DHF to provide critical funding to six nonprofit organizations. Five of those nonprofits are focused on helping underserved areas with a high incidence of diabetes in the United States. An additional grant will support the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child Programme for the organization’s work in Latin America. As a result of reaching 8,000 entries in the Big Blue Test, Diabetes Hands Foundation granted the following:

• $25,000 to International Diabetes Federation’s Life For a Child program.
• $10,000 to Moundville Medical Clinic, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• $10,000 to LIFT For Teens/Walk and Play For Wellness in San Rafael, CA
• $10,000 to University of Colorado Denver
• $10,000 to St. Anthony Medical Clinic, St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco, CA
• $10,000 to Pecos Valley Medical Center, Inc. Pecos NM

“Because of these six extraordinary charities, thousands of people will have the insulin, supplies and care they need to survive,” said Manny Hernandez, founder of TuDiabetes and President of the Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF).  “I am honored and humbled for DHF and the partners that helped us in the Big Blue Test to have a role in something so important.”

DHF will also share the anonymized results submitted by people with diabetes with two academic research groups, to help us analyze the data and learn more from The Big Blue Test. For more details, visit www.BigBlueTest.org.

The Diabetes Hands Foundation has selected St. Anthony Medical Clinic to be one of 5 recipients of Big Blue Test grant money from Roche Diabetes Care. The more participants there are worldwide, the more support St. Anthony Medical Clinic will receive from Diabetes Hands Foundation.

The Berkeley-based Diabetes Hands Foundation created the Big Blue Test in 2009 in order to raise awareness of the dramatic role exercise can play in helping diabetics control their blood sugar and manage their diabetes. In 2009 and 2010 tests, a mere 14 minutes of exercise consistently resulted in a 15 to 20% reduction in blood sugar for patients across the board.

The test is conducted worldwide between November 1st and November 14th, National Diabetes Day. For each participant who takes the test at Big Blue Test, a life-saving donation of supplies is made to a diabetic in need, as well as cash support to non-profits working with low-income diabetics. Everyone can participate, so test early and often, enter your results at Big Blue Test, and help St. Anthony Medical Clinic support diabetics in need.

St. Anthony’s and Walgreens offer 200 free flu shots at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA November 10, 2010 To celebrate National Diabetes Awareness Month, St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic will be offering free blood sugar check ups, foot exams, body mass index calculations, and tips for learning how to control the risk of becoming diabetic. In addition, the first 200 participants will receive a free flu shot courtesy of Walgreens Pharmacy.

St. Anthony’s effort to address the staggering rate of diabetes in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district comes at a time when nearly 24 million Americans, 8 percent of the population, are reported to have Type II diabetes. Diabetes can also lead to kidney failure, blindness and heart disease. The CDC estimates that by 2050, 1 in 3 people in the U.S. will have diabetes. (more…)

As Week of Caring continues, today is Diabetes Outlier’s Day at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic — a day where we dedicate the entire afternoon solely to diabetic patients to make sure they are caught up on all their medical needs. Outliers are patients who have uncontrolled high blood sugar or who have not been in to fulfill a variety of preventative health checks like mental health visits, glaucoma screenings, or foot screenings. St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic has one of the most state of the art chronic care facilities in the San Francisco Tenderloin — and all of our patients can access this care free of charge.

Our podiatrist will be on site today screening diabetic patients for potentially limb-threatening foot problems. Diabetics are at high risk for foot complications such as nerve damage, foot ulcers, and poor circulation which, if left untreated, can lead to irreversible foot damage and in the worst cases amputation. Our patients do not have health insurance they often come in with untreated injuries or illnesses that have compromised their foot health and are in need of podiatric management and custom orthotics.

In response to the orthotic needs of our community, SuperFeet Orthotics has stepped up and made an incredibly generous commitment to our patients here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic. Every month, SuperFeet Orthotics donates standard and custom orthotics to The Clinic so that our patients have access to the medical supplies they need to maintain their mobility and stay healthy.

A big thank you to SuperFeet Orthotics for their tremendous donation, and to our volunteers who are here to help out Clinic staff during Week of Caring!

According to a UCSF study, obesity rates have dropped in Caucasian and Asian children and leveled out for Hispanic/Latino children for the first time in 30 years. Though this may point out successes in recent public health campaigns aimed at reaching youth it also highlights the fact that campaigns are not reaching all children: obesity rates in African American and Native American children continue to rise.

The study states that 20 percent of California schoolchildren were obese and 3.6 percent were severely obese as of 2008. Severely obese children are at high risk of experiencing life-threatening health complications such as diabetes and hypertension.

At St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic we now have an obesity treatment and management program for our pediatric patients and their families in response to the growing number of overweight children in our community. Diet and nutrition are crucial in healthy childhood development; limited access to nutritious food and poor education on how to make healthy food choices leave many in our community at a disadvantage.

Clinicians here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic have begun focusing care on children who qualify as overweight and obese in order to medically manage their health and weight-loss plans. We recognize that children are impacted by the health of their family members, thus families of overweight children are also enrolled in the obesity management program. We believe treating families holistically so that all who are involved in a child’s life receive the tools necessary to make healthy lifestyle choices, such as nutrition education and weight management education, is vital to successful weight management for our low income, uninsured pediatric patients.

… is worth a pound of cure. “Let’s Move”, First Lady Michelle Obama’s new campaign to curb child obesity, puts an encouraging focus on public health. The campaign focuses on improving school lunches, enhancing availability and awareness of nutritious food options, and encouraging daily exercise. Childhood obesity is the root of many problems later in life, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The campaign could potentially mean change for neighborhoods like ours here in the Tenderloin: “Let’s Move” campaign is rolling out “$400 million in tax breaks to encourage grocery stores to move into ‘food deserts,’ areas with limited supplies of nutritious food, and spending $5 million more to establish and promote farmers’ markets” according to SF Gate. Our neighborhood has not one single grocery store but is dominated by corner stores (over 179 active liquor licenses!), making the Tenderloin an ideal candidate.

With any luck, tax incentives will move store interest towards areas like our own. If the campaign is successful, we may be taking our firsts steps on our way to making preventative health an American priority.

According to the American Optometric Association, early detection is a key factor in effective treatment of glaucoma — an eye disease that is often a complication of diabetes. Diabetics are 40% more likely to suffer from glaucoma, but with the help of early detection, symptoms of glaucoma can be treated to prevent nerve damage and blindness.

We see many low-income patients here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic who suffer from diabetes as a result of poor diet and food insecurity. In an effort to reduce health disparities experienced by these men and women in our community we offer free eye screenings during designated diabetes days, during which care is focused diabetic medical and educational needs. These free optical screenings make it possible for uninsured diabetic patients to receive the specialized care they need.

To learn more about diabetes, check out diabetes.org or speak with your healthcare provider.

Last Wednesday was Diabetes Awareness Day at St. Anthony Foundation’s Free Medical Clinic. As St. Anthony Foundation’s Advocacy Coordinator, I was front and center at Diabetes Awareness Day with our doctors, nurses, and medical assistants. Most diabetes awareness events do not include an advocacy component, but here at St. Anthony’s we know that health and nutrition are closely connected, so I took the opportunity to give our Diabetes Day participants a chance to advocate for child nutrition programs.

Programs like the School Breakfast and School Lunch Programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Summer Food Service Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) not only provide low-income children with a basic necessity, they help promote nutrition and healthy eating and prevent disease. Unfortunately, the nation’s economic crisis has led more families than ever to turn to federal nutrition programs for help.

Diabetes Day was a great venue to give our guests the opportunity to advocate for child nutrition programs. It was an exciting day because our guests were so happy to be given the opportunity to care of their own health by having their blood sugar and body mass index tested. I was especially excited that our guests took the time to advocate for the health of low-income children across the country by signing a letter to President Obama asking him to fully fund child nutrition programs in next year’s budget!

If you’d like to learn more about why child nutrition and WIC reauthorization is an important issue for Californians, check out this fact sheet from our friends at California Food Policy Advocates. If you’d like to get involved in advocacy for programs that help end hunger and promote nutrition, email Colleen Rivecca, St. Anthony Foundation Advocacy Coordinator, at crivecca@stanthonysf.org

St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic hosted an amazing Diabetes Day event yesterday, with free diabetes screening, fabulous food, and great information.

November is National Diabetes Month! Diabetes affects 7.8% of the US population; it touches the lives of our friends and family as well as much of our community here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic.

The Clinic will be hosting it 5th annual Diabetes Day to raise awareness and provide education about Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. On November 11th from 12-4pm we are reaching out to the Tenderloin community to promote diabetes care management.

Our Clinic team will provide a variety of diabetes focused services, including blood sugar readings and nutrition education. This year the Clinic is offering cooking presentations to showcase how to make nutritious dishes that are both tasty and diabetes conscious.

St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic will focus particular attention on the importance of diet, nutrition and exercise to children in our community. We have invited students of De Marillac School, who is helping sponsor the event, to participate.  Healthy lifestyles choices early on can prevent the onset of this disease later in life.

We hope to provide for patients already enrolled in our Diabetes Care Managment Program and to spread preventative knowledge to others within our community—so, don a blue ribbon and join St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic in supporting National Diabetes Month!