Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Agent Orange & Diabetes

Q:ginny,

my diabetes has been determined to be related to my exposure to agent orange in Viet-Nam.... My treatment consists of Metformin, glypicide and of course, exercise, a controlled diet, and closely monitering my blood sugar..

What is my long term prognosis if I closely follow my treatment program?

My concern is,,,,,, Will a committment to such treatment be effective if agent orange is the cause of diabetes or will agent orange demand different treatment?

A: J., There are no guarantees with any treatment, but whatever you do to keep your blood sugars in the normal range, keep your lipids in the normal range and your blood pressure normal will give you the best chance for a healthy life. I do not know how agent orange is thought to affect human bodies in regards to diabetes, but I will begin to check. Give me a chance to check with an endocrinologist and get more information to you.

It is sometimes difficult to control blood sugars, blood pressure and blood cholesterols but the treatment of medications, a healthy diet and exercise will help with all of them.

I will post any information about agent orange as soon as I can. Please take care, ginny

Q:Thank you Ginny,

I only asked my questions inregards to agent orange because I have no known diabetes history in my family and all treatment for diabetes seems to be the same without regard to causation..... this seems peculiar to me for I believe there are some health issues that treatment is somewhat different when considering the cause of the illness...

It just seems the medical profession is only treating the symptoms of diabetes and not the particular cause suffered by individual cases..

But........ I must admit to harboring some anger at having this darn disease and I have no choice but to endure it and am the last person qualified to tell my doctor what to do...

Thank you again for your response and I look forward to hearing from you again...

J.

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Who Is Ginny?

Ginny Burns is a local nurse who has worked with people who have diabetes for the last 20 years. She is credited with years of dedication to the American Diabetes Association and Utah Association of Diabetes Educators. She also brings the invaluable experience of having Type 1 diabetes for 39 years which makes her a unique resource to answer your questions.