Salud

One of the worst complications of the disease includes amputations and it is estimated that half of Latinos do not know they have the disease

Due to the high number of diabetics, California is in a state of emergency. There are 2.5 million people diagnosed with high blood sugar – with all the complications that this entails – and 13 million are on waiting lists to get it because they already have prediabetes.

According to the Latino Coalition for a Healthful California, 42% of Latinos do not know that they have this condition.

The disease causes many complications, but amputations due to diabetes are the most painful effects caused by this condition.

What is alarming, according to activists, is that among minority and low-income communities is ten times more than in the general population.

This series of stories that follow the complications that diabetes brings, aims to raise awareness about a disease that has reached epidemic levels in California and in the Hispanic community.

‘They had to amputate to a little lower than the knee’

Sergio Ortega knew he had diabetes but he did not care.

“Our culture was not educated to visit the doctor. We go when we are dying. Hispanics panic when going to a clinic. Machismo teaches us that a man should not complain,” says this immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico.

But when Ortega saw his virility threatened, he hastened to go to the doctor.

“It was not working as a man in the bedroom. I thought I had a sexual disease. I was surprised when the doctor told me that my diabetes level was 700,” he says.

Normal levels of sugar for a person without diabetes are less than 140, two hours after eating; a diabetic should be close to that average.

Ortega has suffered from diabetes for 8 years. He comes from a family of diabetics. His father died of this disease.

He says that before the diabetes, he was addicted to energy drinks, a mixture of sugar with caffeine he drank to gain strength since he worked early in the morning, he ate red meat morning, afternoon and evening, drank many sodas, consumed too much flour and sugar, but no vegetables.

A year ago, diabetes got complicated for Ortega.

“I got a corn on my left foot. I cut it, sanded it. I thought that it would heal. I did not take care of it and it got gangrene. It was like a bomb dropped over me. My foot got black, lilac. They had to amputate almost to the knee,” he says while he removes the prosthesis to show the cut they did.

An epidemic out of control

Among Latinos, the diabetes is a true epidemic. A study published by the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in March of this year, found that almost half of the adults in California has prediabetes, a precursor to diabetes type-2, or has it and has not yet been diagnosed

We are speaking of 13 million adults in California. Other 2.5 million adults have been diagnosed.

It was once thought that the disease was only in older people. But this is an erroneous assumption because it affects young people increasingly: 1 in every 3 Latinos between 18 and 39 years of age in the state are prediabetic.

The disease brings many complications, but one of the more severe is amputations.

According to the latest figures from the American Diabetes Association, out of 73,000 amputations in lower extremities made in 2010, 60% were done to diabetics over 20 years.

For Rebecca de la Rosa, acting director of Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, amputations in communities of color and low-income, are ten times higher than in the general population.

“To treat and manage a chronic disease like diabetes costs an average of $2,200 more a day, each time you visit the hospital. For those who do not have health insurance, this can be the difference between paying rent or for their health,” she says.

Sergio Ortega, who did not have health insurance, says he often stopped going to the doctor because he was torn between paying the rent or medical bills.

`I was five days in comma’

When Luis Alfaro, a 54-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, had a injury in his heel but he neither took care about it, nor the doctor.

He did not want to lose a day of workings in the supermarket where he works as a packer.

“How will I do for my expenses,” he says that he used to wonder. “I did not know I could get disability,” he says.

Within weeks, the heel began to fester.

“One day my foot swelled as bloated toad, I felt very weak and they took me to the hospital. His sugar level was 600. I was five days in a comma. They told me that they were not able to save my foot It had got gangrene,” he says.

So nine years after being diagnosed with diabetes, Alfaro lost one of his lower extremities almost to the knee.

“Before the diabetes, my life was a mess. I drank 20 cups of coffee a day, drank a lot of soda, and smoked 12 cigarettes a day. I ate much fried chicken, rice, glass soups. I never liked vegetables. I was an alcoholic,” he says.

Concepcion, a 64-year old Guatemalan immigrant and Luis Alfaro’s wife, has also had type-2 diabetes for 14 years.

“I had no symptoms. But when they discovered it, my sugar level was 400. I was diagnosed after my mother died. It was a very hard blow. I began to cry.” she sadly remembers.

Conception is afraid about the possibility of amputation, or worse, losing her life due to diabetes. “Who is going to take care of my husband?,” she wonders.

There are not prevention campaigns

De la Rosa, from the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, says that, despite high levels of diabetes and prediabetes in California, there is not a statewide campaign of prevention and education.

“California is one of the states across the nation with the lowest financial investment in diabetes prevention, with 3 cents per capita,” she says.

This year, an effort to impose a charge of 2 cents per ounce on sugary drinks in the California Legislature failed once again. 73% of Latinos consume sugary drinks every day.

Prevention efforts and education are made at the level of community clinics.

The St John’s Clinic offers a workshop every Wednesday to Latinos with diabetes to help them manage the disease and teach them the importance of a balanced diet and portions. Sergio Ortega is one of the Latinos who regularly attend the workshop for diabetics.

“My life changed 350 degrees. I have red meat replaced by chicken, fish and now as vegetables. I do not drink Coke and energy drinks any more. I exercise on a stationary bike and I have diabetes under control,” he says.

“After the amputation, I feel like life has given me a second chance. But we, Latinos, need a lot of education to prevent diabetes. Before coming to the United States, I used to eat better in my hometown. Here you eat too much junk food. My recommendation is to go to the doctor to be checked every year,” he says.

The Alfaros recommend diabetics and nondiabetics to avoid sugar, but if you already have the disease and want to prevent amputations “it is better to visit the doctor immediately when you see something wrong in your body.”

Some of the most serious complications of diabetes, besides amputations, are high blood pressure, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, stroke, blindness, vision problems, kidney failure and even mental health problems that are expressed in depression and anxiety.

*First part of a special series