A local dietitian said Type 2 Diabetes is an epidemic, and many people have diabetes but might not know it because they aren’t going to the doctor regularly. Doctors refer diabetes patients to Jan Miller, a registered dietitian. She is one of three at the Lawton Community Health Center.
When Miller first meets with patients, she likes to help them learn about the disease and talk to them about these seven things: lifestyle, exercise, medication, monitoring, healthy coping, reducing risks, and problem-solving.
“What is the hardest thing for you about your diabetes? What do you think we need to work on? This is your disease,” she said. “We’re here to coach you. I often tell people ‘I’m your coach. I’m here to help you figure this out, so you can control it, and end up enjoying the rest of your life instead of having to stay home and take care of your diabetes.’”
Miller said going to the doctor and knowing your sugar levels is important because they want to work with people who are borderline diabetic in hopes of keeping it at bay.
“If we can prevent diabetes from being actually diagnosed, and keep people under the pre-diabetes, and even closer into healthier numbers for their hemoglobin AIC, we’re much happier to reduce their risk for all kinds of chronic diseases that are related or that can come along with the type 2 diabetes,” she said.
Miller said she talks to them about how to test, when to test, and what their numbers should be.
“I get that question a lot,” Miller said. “‘What are my numbers?’ even though we go over it. Sometimes you get confused. Before a meal, it should be something. After meals, it should be something else. My numbers should be something else when I go exercise. So we don’t want to — we want to avoid high swings of blood sugars and we want to avoid low blood sugar swings.”
While there are diet changes that need to happen, Miller said she sometimes sees people overcorrect.
“They’re going from enormous amounts of carbohydrates to very little and there is a happy medium on carbohydrates,” she said. “I think people have somehow gotten the idea that they’re ‘bad.’ We really want people to be including more whole grains and more fiber – fiber is so, so beneficial with their diabetes management.”
Miller said most people are not getting the amount of fiber they need in a day. When it comes to diet, and what to eat and what not to eat, she says they follow the recommendations from the American Diabetes Association and try to meet people in the middle.
“I have not had a single adult tell me ‘I’m going to do exactly what you tell me.’ So, we compromise, and look for ways that we can improve their self-care to achieve the goal and the goal is to reduce their hemoglobin AIC to a more appropriate level of 6.5 or below,” Miller said.
She said the level will be adjusted based on whether the person has kidney or heart issues.
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