APO Hosts Diabetes Awareness Event

On Wednesday evening, Nov. 6, the Frostburg State University (FSU) chapter of  Alpha Phi Omega (APO) hosted a Diabetes Awareness event on campus. Wesley Schaire, a brother of APO, educated audience members with a presentation on diabetes. 

Schaire opened up about his personal experience with diabetes, mentioning that he was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes this past July. 

“You’re probably thinking, ‘What the heck? You’re a young guy with diabetes? You’re not like an old guy?’ Well, it turns out, anyone can get it. It was completely my fault, it was brought on by poor diet and poor exercise. I have diabetes on both sides of my family. I wasn’t born with it, but what I was born with, is a genetic predisposition to it. Both of my parents were pre-diabetic and my aunt has diabetes. We also like to eat. We love pasta and we have huge portions,” Schaire said. “So what is diabetes? It’s basically a disease that changes with how your body deals with sugar. So, I’m prone to blood sugar spikes. Whenever I eat something, my blood sugar goes up. And then, overtime, my blood sugar goes down.” 

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH), describes the different types of diabetes as: 

Type 1 diabetes

If you have type 1 diabetes, your body does not make insulin. Your immune system attacks and destroys the cells in your pancreas that make insulin. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, although it can appear at any age. People with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin every day to stay alive.

Type 2 diabetes

If you have type 2 diabetes, your body does not make or use insulin well. You can develop type 2 diabetes at any age, even during childhood. However, this type of diabetes occurs most often in middle-aged and older people. Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes.

Gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes develops in some women when they are pregnant. Most of the time, this type of diabetes goes away after the baby is born. However, if you’ve had gestational diabetes, you have a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Sometimes diabetes diagnosed during pregnancy is actually type 2 diabetes” (NIH). 

Schaire mentioned, “For those interested, the Western Maryland Health System hosts meetings the first Tuesday of each month at the Center for Clinical Resources in Cumberland discussing type 2 diabetes. They have other meetings for Type 1 as well.”

In his presentation, Schaire discussed complications from diabetes such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye problems, dental disease, nerve damage, and foot problems. He also mentioned ways to combat or possibly prevent diabetes, such as taking care of your body, eating right, exercising regularly, spreading awareness, spreading the facts, and getting the A1C test. 

The NIH defines the A1C test as “a blood test that provides information about your average levels of blood glucose, also called blood sugar, over the past 3 months. The A1C test can be used to diagnose type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes 1 The A1C test is also the primary test used for diabetes management” (NIH). 

“My daily life with diabetes involves taking metformin (a pill). I take one when I wake up and one before I eat dinner. I spend about an hour planning for what I’m going to eat that day. I eat a lot of the same foods weekly so that makes planning a bit easier. In college, meal planning and prepping is incredibly hard. I’m involved with so much plus classes it can be a struggle to plan accordingly. I live off-campus, so I go grocery shopping for all of my food. When I was a first-year, I was trying to eat right and found it very hard. Everything is either cheap and bad for you, or expensive and maybe a little less bad for you. I ended up gaining quite a bit of weight during my time here,” Schaire remarked. 

Schaire encouraged audience members to also support their friends and/or family living with diabetes, along with keeping diabetes in mind when planning events and gatherings.