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.

Last month we announced that Dr. Ana Valdes, Medical Director of St. Anthony’s Clinic, was a finalist for a Healthcare Hero Award. It’s high time to announce that she won.

The San Francisco Business Times launched the new awards to honor professionals who go above and beyond to make the Bay Area healthier by delivering quality care, advocating for patients, innovating new technology or educating the community about health issues.

Dr. Ana was recognized for increasing healthcare access to the underserved. Interestingly enough, one of her achievements that most interested her healthcare peers was synchronizing St. Anthony’s electronic medical records with the coding system at San Francisco General Hospital. This made St. Anthony’s the city’s first low-income clinic to do so. It sounds technical, but coordinating with SF General means that all the doctors who serve a low-income patient have the same information. A more complete history means better care and more possibility for progress.

The magazine also cited the brand new breast health program Dr. Ana has started in the Clinic, based on an outreach model she created for diabetes patients and later for asthma patients. All three programs help patients who have a hard time keeping up with their healthcare come into the Clinic, check on progress, and make a plan for managing disease. (more…)

I haven’t taken a poll recently, but I feel confident that the most popular excuse for not exercising has to be lack of time. People tend to think that if they can’t spare 45-90 minutes a day to exercise, it’s just not worth it. However, current research indicates that even small blocks of time dedicated to some form of physical activity can result in significant health benefits.

British Medical Journal The Lancet published an article this week on the relative health benefits of daily low (15 min. per day), moderate (30 min. per day), and high (45 min per day) volume of exercise. Results showed that even those in the low volume group (exercising an average of 92 minutes per week, or 15 minutes per day) “had a 14% reduced risk of all-cause mortality, and had a 3 year longer life expectancy.”

Even low levels of activity, can reduce blood pressure, and improve cardiovascular fitness and overall health. The Walking Group at St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic has experienced the benefits of low to moderate intensity exercise first hand. Every Friday at 10:00 a.m. the Walking Group, led by Carolina Flamenco, convenes at the Clinic and heads out for a 60-90 minute walk. These walks provide participants, many of whom are diabetic, not only with much-needed exercise and stress relief, but also with a chance to socialize in a relaxed environment, a chance to get out of the neighborhood and see other parts of the city, and to reconnect with the natural environment in the city’s parks.

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The new U.S. dietary guidelines, which recommend eating more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D and calcium, and avoiding saturated fat and added sugar, can add almost 10% on average to your yearly food bill. For many low income Americans the “luxury” of eating healthy is all but unobtainable. For most of our clients the best option to stay full and stay on budget is to purchase processed foods from fast food restaurants and corner stores. These meals are typically high in fat and sugar and low in valuable nutrients, compromising client’s overall health and ability to avoid medical complications like diabetes and obesity.

At St. Anthony Foundation we connect low income patients with fresh foods so they have a chance to meet personal as well as nationwide community health goals. Our social work center guides clients in where and how to use their food stamps to purchase produce from local farmers markets. Our Fresh Fruits and Veggies program connects Medical Clinic patients with healthy food options, which we in turn teach patients how to prepare during our Clinic Cooking Classes. These classes are geared towards diabetic and overweight patients looking to manage their diets and offer tasty recipes that are low in sugar, salt, and fat. In our Dining Room, meals area always served with a vegetable and a side of fresh fruit.

At St. Anthony Foundation we aim to make healthy food options accessible for patients and clients by connecting them with services and providing healthy, nutritious meals. It is our hope that one day healthy food will be an option for everyone — not simply those with greater economic means.

Dr. Ana Valdez is a finalist for a Healthcare Heroes Award. Sponsored by the San Francisco Business Times, the new awards honor professionals who go above and beyond to make the Bay Area healthier by delivering quality care, advocating for patients, innovating with new technology or educating the community about health issues. Recipients will be announced at the awards ceremony on July 27.

Dr. Ana does all of the above. She has made St. Anthony’s Medical Clinic into a medical home for those who need it most: the uninsured and underinsured, the working poor, new immigrants, and low-income families with children.

Her experience practicing Family Medicine in the American Southwest, Mexico, and Guatemala prepared her for St. Anthony’s. She knows how to provide high-quality care with limited resources . Her approach makes rigorous use of counseling, health education, and peer support. St. Anthony patients participate in their own care.

Dr. Ana has taken a “go get ‘em” approach to inviting diabetic patients who have trouble keeping current with their care to come in for a visit with a doctor. The Clinic organizes 4 Diabetes Days a year. They telephone all of our Diabetic patients who haven’t been in for a while to come in for a check-up, treatment, and counseling. On the same day, they invite the neighborhood to come in for screening and Q & A about Diabetes.

It started as an experiment and it worked so well that the Clinic started a series of Asthma Days to do the same thing with asthma patients: 4 Asthma Days a year, calls to the asthma patients they haven’t seen in a while, and an invitation to neighbors who might become new patients. Soon, thanks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, they’ll replicate the whole model for women’s breast health to prevent and identify breast cancer and other diseases early on.

Whatever happens on July 27, Dr. Ana is a healthcare hero to her colleagues, and to 3400 people who make the Clinic their medical home. We’re grateful to the San Francisco Business times for honoring Dr. Ana.

Check out the SF Business Times for a profile of Dr. Ana and the other finalists.

Like many health-conscious Americans, I try my best to eat generous portions of fresh fruits and veggies every day.  We’ve all been told time and time again how important fresh produce is to healthy living — but how many people, like myself, feel frustrated by emerging reports about the toxicity of pesticides used on the same fruits and veggies that are supposed to be keeping us healthy? I do try to buy organic produce as often as I can, but this can get discouragingly expensive. I find myself trying to pick and choose what produce is best bought organic and what conventionally grown items I can still buy without to much concern. All this in an effort to keep both  diet and  checkbook balanced…but how in all this headache do I know which foods to buy organic and which have the lowest levels of pesticides?

Here’s a helpful tool created by the Environmental Working Group, an advocate for stricter pesticide controls, to help concerned shoppers like myself decipher what foods I should choose to buy organic. They’ve organized groups of popular fruits and veggies into the “Dirty Dozen” and the “Clean 15″, with apples, celery, and strawberries coming in at the top of the “Buy Organic” list and onions, sweet corn, and pineapples being the safest of the pesticide-grown group.

Even with helpful tools like this, navigating the grocery store and cooking a healthy meal can seem like daunting tasks for many of our patients who lack the resources and the education to do so. While I might struggle to decide between types of produce, many of our patients are unable to purchase fresh foods at all due to their fixed or limited income. At St. Anthony Medical Clinic we strive to bridge that gap and help patients access the foods they need while arming them with the tools necessary to make prudent, healthy food choices. Here at The Clinic, we offer cooking classes and a fresh fruits and veggies program to connect our patients with fresh, organic or locally grown foods and the skills patients need to prepare them. We offer nutrition counseling, weight management counseling and even provide patients with bags of fresh groceries during our Diabetes Outliers Days and Asthma Outliers Days. We help patients understand nutrition labels and how to plan menus that accommodate their specific health needs.  It is our goal to improve the health of our community; we do this in part by striving to ensure all our patients have access to fresh produce and the knowledge to prepare delicious and healthy meals for themselves and their families.

A dedicated team from IBM came to St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic to assist with a much appreciated scrubdown!  IBM is celebrating its 100th anniversary and the whole company is out volunteering.  Way to go IBM!

A big thanks to SuperFeet Premium Insoles for their generous support of the St. Anthony Medical Clinic podiatry program. SuperFeet has kindly offered to keep our program in a steady supply of orthotics so as the ease the pain and discomfort of many of our patients who need specialized foot care, often as a result of spending all day on their feet at work work  and caring for family members.

Our podiatry patients are low income men and women who often times are diabetic. Diabetics are at high risk for foot complications such as neuropathy, food ulcers, and poor circulation which, if left untreated, can lead to irreversible damage that can only be treated by 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. With the help of SuperFeet orthotics, our staff podiatrist Dr. Mario Rizzo — who has been serving the St. Anthony community for over 30 years — can customize care according to each patients needs.

Thank you, SuperFeet! And thanks to all our community partners who help make the care at St. Anthony Medical Clinic truly fantastic!

Most people associate St. Anthony’s with food. But our programs also help put people to work.

The Tenderloin Technology Lab, conducted with San Francisco Network Ministries, offers computer classes at every level from introductory to computer technician. The Tech Lab helps use technology to find a job.

St. Anthony’s Clothing Program collects, inspects, and prepares used clothing for families sending their children to school and unemployed guests looking for a job.

Our Free Medical Clinic’s pediatrics program helps parents stay at work by helping them keep their children healthy.

Residents of our drug and alcohol rehabilitation program get their first work experience in St. Anthony Dining Room and get job coaching to learn not only how to find a job, but also how to hold one.

And as people who have lost their jobs come to the end of their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, St. Anthony Dining Room is helping to take pressure off their budgets by providing hot, nutritious meals.

St. Anthony’s is more than a charity. Today’s guests are tomorrow’s work force.

During this beautiful warm spell in San Francisco, what better way to enjoy the day and get your blood moving than a brisk walk through your neighborhood with friends? That’s exactly what members of the St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic Walking Group have been doing with the help of our fabulous Walking Group Leader and clinic staff.

The Walking Group kicked off this summer with 5 participants and took to the sidewalks of the Tenderloin and beyond. Many of our participants are patients who struggle with diabetes or weight management. Our Walking Group Leader guides patients on walking tours around the area and provides them with helpful tips for exercise, nutrition, and self-management to help patients reach their health goals.

The Walking Group has proven to be a fabulous success for our patients — and because it’s so fun, its popularity has spread throughout the Clinic! Since August, participation has more than doubled. Weekly groups are now up to 13 participants on average. Our group has walked over 500 miles in the Tenderloin community and has lost an impressive combined weight of 50 pounds!

As the group progresses, we hope to coordinate Clinic sponsored “scenic” walks around the city. It is our goal to transport Walking Group members to the lovely forested areas of the Presidio, the unique trails of Golden Gate Park, and the beautiful beach front vistas of the Marina. Many of our low-income families here in the Tenderloin struggle to get out of the neighborhood due to barriers caused by anxiety or lack of resources. By bringing Walking Group patients to experience outside communities not only will the Walking Group provide some exercise variety in life, but a unique opportunity to enjoy beauty of our city on foot!

The Walking Group is open to all patients at The Clinic — come join in at any time! For more information on meeting times and routes ask at the Clinic font desk.