Episode Transcript
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One, O four five Latino Hitsis putting the spotlight on you, San
Antonio and probably serving our community.This is the MIS San Antonio Community Voices
podcast on iHeartRadio San Antonio, representandothat two ten baby Piano Petroco Latino.
Here it's the MIS San Antonio podcast. Federal Ali especial from the City of
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San Antonio Metro Health Sen Julius Hunter. Hey, Julis, how's it going.
It's going good. Thanks for havingme. Happy to have you,
Julius. Tell me about what youdo with the City of San Antonio Metro
Health. Sure. So, Iam the program coordinator for the City of
San Antonio Diabetes Prevention and Control program. And so our program reaches out to
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all of Bear County providing health educationworkshops uh and based. We go anywhere
where the doors are open to us. So we meet in organizations, churches,
businesses, anywhere where people say,hey, we want to learn more
about how to get healthy, howto get stronger, how to live longer.
We're there and we provide our resourceswith no costs. You know.
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So I've been in the market now, I've been in San Antonio for about
ten months now. One of thethings that jumped out to me when I
moved to this city, is thatthe amount of advertising I see everywhere,
whether it's billboards, whether it's printand advertising. I hear on radio about
diabetes awareness, right, and Iquickly came to the conclusion that it is
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a big problem, not just nationwide, but it's a big problem here in
San Antonio. Right, why don'twe start off what is well? I
mean it's clear, but what isno you know, what is National Diabetes
Awareness Month? What it's all?What's the program about? Right? What
is National Diabetes Awareness Went? Well, it is something that that awareness dexigt
Nation was started by the ADA,the American Diabetes Association, and it's simply
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to bring awareness about diabetes and howit affects our communities, how it affects
you individual, how to affects families, in terms of resources, in terms
of complications. It's a big conversationto have, and definitely when we look
at San Antonio, it definitely isa big conversation for our community because diabetes
is the seventh leading cause of deathhere in San Antonio, seventh seventh leading
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cause of death. And when welook at the state and at the national
level, diabetes is higher here inSan Antonio than the state in the national
average. And why is that?Why is that? You know, there's
many different factors to that. Dowe go a little bit overboard with our
big redom baracoa? Is? Isthat? Probably? It? So a
lot of people like to look atthat, is it big red barbaca?
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Right, that's the natural assumption,and some of those lifestyle choices play into
it. But really it's also aboutwhat we call social determinants of health.
Right. And so when we lookat the history of San Antonio and how
certain neighborhoods receives resources, more resourcesversus other neighborhoods. And we look at
the things that are available in termsof food and food and security, what's
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available in terms of job and economicdevelopment, all those things play a role.
When we look at literacy, uh, financial literacy, health literacy,
uh, just literacy in terms ofactual reading, right, all those things
play a factor in how people uhin what and what people have access to,
right in terms of food, interms of opportunities, and then in
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terms of how they grow in thefuture. And we look at kids and
they're there their opportunities when they're growingup, all that plays a factor into
why our diabetes rates are higher.See, that's that's new to me,
and I think it's gonna be newto a lot of folks that are listening
to this podcast now because I thinkthe assumption from a lot of folks is,
well, it's genetics, right,right, And I think gen X
does have a part to play init, right, right, But it's
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not the main factor. Right.So case in point, might my sister
my dad. Let me back up. My dad who's really my stepdaddy,
but he's my stepdad, but heraised me. He's diabetic, okay,
and he's been diabetic since he wasin his thirties. So now my sister,
who's her father, you know,in her mind, she's like,
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oh crap, you know, ifI don't take care of myself now,
I will end up diabetic. Now, so far she's good, you know,
you know, doctor's business and bloodworks. Everything's fine. But but
to your point, so it's allthese other factors that play into it.
Yeah, So you know, there'sobviously the things that we can control,
right. We can control our lifestylehabits, yes, we can control the
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things that we eat pretty much,right, But there's definitely a lot added
to it. Some of it isgenetics, right, we know that African
Americans, we know that Hispanics arehave a have a greater risk for being
diagnosed with diabetes. So some ofit is genetics. But some of it,
again is the environment and a lotof things that people do not have
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within their control. And that's goingto take you know, the state,
looking at our local government, lookingat federal resources to change some of those
things about the environment so that peoplecan have better outcomes. So what are
those those steps folks can take orthat are in their control that they can
take to prevent diabetes. I liketo highlight when we talk about that.
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I like to highlight two different things. One is education, right, simply
knowing more. Right, if weknow more about in this case of disease,
or we know more about something,we're going to be able to come
at it in a better way.So as same for diabetes. If we
know more about Okay, what arethe things that we can do to prevent
or what are the things that wecan when we go to the grocery store,
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what do we need to look atand first foods that we need to
choose. If we know about opportunitiesfor fitness and how we can access those
opportunities in our community. Then simplyknowing about those things will help us move
the needle and get closer to wherewe can either prevent or delay diabetes.
The second thing that I like totalk about is really really important. Again,
it's one of those things that wereally don't think about a lot.
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If I asked you what was whatdo you think? It's the number one
predictor of health for people. Numberone predictor for health. Oh, I
would say, I would say me. I would say, like, how
that person grew up, like whatthey saw around them. So if their
parents were eating a certain way,well that you know, the child will
also eat that way, right,and not maybe make the healthier you know,
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or make healthier eating choices fruits andvegetables versus you know, you know,
box food or whatnot, right,And actually that's that's actually to the
answer. So when we look atthe number one predictor, one of the
number one predictions of health, andthey did a study of people who were
fifty years old with you study ofpeople were eighty years old. They look
back to when they were fifty andthey found that the number one predictor of
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health, number of a predictor ofhappiness, number of a predictor of life
expectancy, a number of predictive oflife satisfaction. Was social connectedness Back to
what you were saying, exactly,how do I grew up? And what
were the influence? What were theinfluence? Is there socially right that helped
me to make my decisions, informmy decisions, or form my kind of
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ethos for my decisions of life.Right, that is actually more important than
the actual nuts and bolts of whatyou're actually eating. To have that social
connected is, to have that supportsystem around you is really what's going to
push you forward and to where youcan prevent or delay diabetes, to where
you can optimize your health. Allthose things are affected by your social connected
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and who you see running around you. Right, If your friends are all
saying, hey, I want togo out and I don't know job today,
then you're more likely to say,okay, yeah, I want to
go out in job or hike,or hey I want to go out and
try that new healthy restaurant. Thenyou're more likely to also go along and
try that new healthy restaurant. YeahNo, And what about what about those
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folks who, let's say you didgrow up in a good, healthy environment,
family members making great choices around you. But right here, I'm a
perfect example. You're a you're awell I don't want to say I'm as
young as I used to VM thirtynine now, but you're young. You're
busy professional, You're running around yourgo go, go, go go.
You don't have time to stop downand cook, cook a fresh meal.
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And you know, maybe we don'tmake the best choices because when we go
eat during the day because you justwant something fast on the go, Like
what's what's What would you say toa person like that who should be making
better food choices, who's on gonnago? I mean, first thing I
would say is they're already there,They're halfway there, because first thing is
awareness. Right, So if youdon't even know that, hey, I'm
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in that realm, I'm making badchoices. You know. So you're there,
you realize my pants don't fit todayexactly I need to get better.
So so now that you have that, you know then looking for those resources
to say, Okay, how canI optimize this and make it easier?
What maybe I need to if Ihave the resources. Can I apply to
a meal service that'll make this moreeasy to get those let's right, have
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them in front of me. Yeah, Or maybe I can take block out
some time on my Sunday and dosome meal prepping. I'm really thinking through
the week, Okay, maybe Ineed to or you know, even snacking.
Can I take some healthy snacks withme to my desk so I can
have some nuts to eat, someraisin, something so that I'm not tempted
to grab that candy bar by default, I'm not timpted to grab that food
that maybe I don't want to eatin the moment I have something there.
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So a lot of it has todo with thinking ahead, preparing for that
and really, you know, knowingthat, hey, there are resources around
you that can help out with thatplanning so that can eat healthy and be
healthier. I think it's very importantbecause I don't know if, or at
least I haven't seen, you know, a more in your face campaign for
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something like this for diabetes awareness.You know, we I think we tell
folks, hey, eat right,eat fresh vegetables and fruits and stay away
from the processed stuff, you know, to prevent diabetes. But let's talk
about a little bit about what islife like with diabetes. Now I can
tell you firsthand. In my case, my dad, uh, he takes
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he takes medication every day. Hewell, he takes insulin, right,
he has his insulin shot. That'snot fun, right, So you know
telling folks, hey, jabbing yourselfwith a needle every day not fun?
What are the what happens, whatgoes? What happens to the body when
it's dealing with diabetes, and whatare the next What other diseases can one
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run into because of diabetes or issues. I'm glad you bring it up because
you know, a lot of timeswe in our communities or individuals, we
grew up with people that had diabetesaround us, right, Yeah, you
know they they you know so andso, my, my, my,
my grandmother, my uncle and myaunt. They have to watch their sugar,
right, and folks kind of justbrush off, like I'm gonna go
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eat over here exactly exactly and notreally thinking about, Hey, there are
some serious, serious complications for thisdisease, especially if you let it go
unchecked and it's not managed. Somecomplications not only that in arts of the
health complications, but is a seriousfinancial burden you know, one out of
every four dollars for health for aperson with diabetes goes to the actual disease,
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right, And so they say peoplewith diabetes are paying between fifteen thy
to twenty thousand more a year becauseof having diabetes. So that's an important
thing to consider. But when welook at the health complications, the most
severe obviously is diabetic coma and death. Right, So if your diabetes goes
unchecked, can it can even leadto, you know, finding yourself in
a coma and death. It canlead to kidney failure, It can lead
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to blindness, it can lead tocirculation issues with your legs and you and
your hands and your extremities and youknow, so all of those things.
Obviously, if you're not moving aswell, then you see some of all
of those other complications that happen otherdiseases come a factor in because you're being
slowed down because of your diabetes.So yes, it's definitely something that we
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want to get out in terms ofthis awareness. Hey, these are some
serious complications. Kidney's analysis. Youknow, people that have kidneysalysis are taking
eight hours you know, uh,you know, eight hours a day sometimes
to go through kidney dialysis. Uh, and that's a that's a big investment
of time. And I will saythis, like I said at the beginning
of this podcast, when I movedto this town, you just said something
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that that that you know, lightbulb went off. I see kidney Dallas
places places locations here in San Antonio, like like there were gas stations on
every corner. That is insane.Like, I don't understand how that's been
how that's become quote unquote normal.That's not normal, right, And you
know, there have been things thatwe just accept, right, I think
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a lot of terms and when wetalk about like I said, diabetes particularly
targets the African American community and theHispanic community, things culturally that we've accept,
right, we just accept that there'sgonna be somebody in our family and
diabetes is just something you're gonna getand you're gonna deal with. You just
continue. But that doesn't have tobe that way. When we have more
knowledge of the more knowledge of thedisease how we can prevent it, and
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also more knowledge is about the resourcesthat are available, then we can do
better, live longer, and beginto move the needle in our communities.
Right, and then and as wetell folks more and more about diabetes and
all the issues that come along withit. You know, no one's saying
stop enjoying the stuff you like toenjoy. No one's saying put down the
finas tho, and no one's sayingput down the loot says that you just
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brought from you know, your hometownin Mexico. No one's saying that.
What we're saying or you know,or or stop drinking co cola or whatever
the case. Right, what we'resaying in moderation, right, moderation,
but add more fresh fruits and vegetablesand fresh meals to your day to day
diet, right perfect. I mean, what I like to tell people is,
yeah, don't focus about what onwhat you can't do. Yeah,
focus on what you can do itfruits and vegetables to your diet. First
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thing. I like to tell peoplethat, hey, let's focus on adding
more fruits and vegetables. Let's focuson drinking more water. Let's just make
that the focus. Developing those littlehabits that you know, as a compound
over time can lead to greater results. I think another key is you brought
up you know food. When welook at food sometimes we have those adversarial
messages when it comes to culture thata certain culture's type of food is better
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than another another culture's type of food, right, Pondusa or maybe tacos,
we say, oh, that's badfood as supposed to you know, some
other items that we look at itfrom another culture like oh, that's that's
that's acceptable, that's more healthy.And so it's not it's not a matter
of losing one's own culture. It'sa matter of Okay, what are the
things within my cultural within my culturalpreferences that I can't eat, right,
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I can't eat more of one ofthe things that they're focused on, you
know, uh, fresh food andand you know when we talk about tacos,
we are there are a lot offresh ingredients that go into cilantro and
and people that I owe and allthose other things that are very healthy for
us. Right. But a lotof times that message does get drowned out
that people think, oh, well, if I got to cut back on
everything, I like, yeah,I get this, yeah anymore, It's
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like no, No, there area lot of things that go within talkers
that are very healthy. Yeah,in terms of ingredients, it's just a
matter of you as an individual,as a family, and us as a
community, getting more educated, learningmore about those things, and then moving
forward. You know, I hadat the beginning of this year, I
had a tragic loss in my extendedfamily where we had a family member who's
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diabetic, and he ended up developingpancredic cancer, and unfortunately it was very
aggressive. It was quick. Literally, diagnosis was mid twenty twenty two,
and beginning of this year twenty twentythree, he was gone. So,
you know, the these conversations andthese examples like the one I just mentioned
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have to be had, and youknow, folks cannot just because you're right.
Folks just brush it off and I'mlike, oh, it's part of
life, We're gonna catch diabetes.No, it should not be part of
life. You shouldn't have to again, shouldn't have to be stabbing yourself with
insulin for the rest of your life. Shouldn't have to You shouldn't have to
be saying, oh, you can'teat you know, too much of my
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bandu today because my sugar is gonnaspike or whatever. You can enjoy life.
You can eat right and still enjoythe things you could like to indulge
in from your culture without going overboardand not having to live through these experiences
that we're seeing now day after dayof loved ones leaving us because they didn't
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take care of themselves. Yeah,we look at the statistics and you know,
the stat I couldn't remember earlier wasone out of every nine people have
indicated diagnosed with diabetes. But thesecret about that staff of the stat of
the other side of that is thattwenty percent of our population doesn't even know.
Twenty percent that has diabetes doesn't evenknow that they have because they won't
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go get checked, because they won'tget checked or that's not a part of
their you know, they don't havethe access. Maybe they don't have the
resources to get checked. That's notthat they grew up with certain stigmas about
hospitals. They don't have the informationto nowhere to get the resource exactly all
the where do we start right?And then they're finding out that they have
diabetes when they're entering in the hospitalin an emergency situation. They have a
diabet where it might be too lateright, where it might be too late
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right, or it's definitely in aplace where it's very severe, and if
they would have known earlier, wecould have taken care of it earlier.
So, you know, along withthat prevalence, right along with the high
rate of diabetes that we have inour community, we have a high rate
of hospitalizations and that means that peopleare coming into the hospital with those complications
that haven't been managed, that havebeen unchecked, and now they're at a
severe place. We have a youhave a great event coming up really soon
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November fifteenth, twenty twenty three.It's the Diabetes health Fare. We were
just talking about how people don't maynot know where to start, where to
get the information, to find someof these resources to help them. Tell
me about this health fare. Yeah, so we're really excited about this event.
This is our third annual Diabetes Healthfareand so it will be on November
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fifteenth at the West End Park thatis also located next to the Frank Garrett
Community Center. It's right there thatzip code seven eight two oh seven has
the highest rates of diabetes in ourcity, and so we thought it was
important to have the event there obviouslyto bring awareness, but also to help
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those residents there and there in thatcommunity. Something really exciting that we're doing
for this diabetes Healthfare is us.We're hosting a turkey drive and so we
will have free turkey vouchers, twentyfive dollars worth turkey vouchers to give away
to the community as supplies last,and so that's something again that that center
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and that park has traditionally had everyyear and so we're happy to support that
for another year for people to comeand get at no cost. Of course,
we'll have fitness demos out there,so people helping you to engage in
physical activity. We'll have food demosout there. Our Community Attrition program is
going to go and give a healthyfood a demo and people will be able
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to try that healthy food. We'llhave fresh produce out there. We'll have
different vendors, some of our metrohealth vendors and programs we were out there,
and also some other community partners willbe there, such as the Safe
Clinic. They'll be out as wellas a vendor. And we really shout
out to AGB. They donated abig bulk of the turkeys that will be
giving out for free, so we'rereally thankful to them for that support.
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But again we're excited about this fair, and you know we've seen in every
fair that we've done, we've beenable to grow. We will get bigger
and better and offer more resources toour community. See this is awesome because
since I moved to San Antonio andstarted working here, I've been asking,
you know, hey, how youknow, where can we get involved?
Where can the station be at thatwe can amplify through these podcasts on the
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air and drive folks to resources andinformation to hopefully better their lives in terms
of health. So this is superexciting. And and like I mentioned to
you in my two examples, thisis something very personal for me. You
know, seen my dad all theseyears. You know, thankfully we still
have him, he's still with us, But I mean it's scary the things
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he's gone through throughout the years.You know, he's gone through moments where
if he's on top of his sugar, I've seen him pass out right in
front of me, like, youknow, literally feet away from me,
pass out, hit the ground right. Have had to take him to the
hospital, make sure he's okay,get his sugar check. I've had to
you know, even go out andget him a piece of chocolate, you
know, when the sugar is lowand get some chocolate in him. It's
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it's if it's stressful for the persondealing with diabetes, it is stressful for
the family members I know. Andthen as I mentioned with the extended family
member that I had passed away atthe beginning of the year, then there's
that as well. And you don'twant to go through that someone who's diabetic
and then developed something like pancreatic canceror whatever the case, whether it's amputation
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or whatever. It's a stress oneverybody, not just the person going through
it. And I don't know ifwe can say that anymore clearly for folks
to really understand, you do nothave to live sick. You can live
a long, happy, healthy lifeby making small conscious changes fruits and vegetables,
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protein, and on the weekends gonuts, have your tacles exactly,
but more than often eat right.What else do you want to share with
us, Julius before we wrap thispodcast, I was thinking about it as
you mentioned your dad. One ofthe initiatives that we're very proud of that
we started within this last year wasan initiative towards men, and we adopted
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a curriculum. One of the newcurriculums that adopted is called the Diabetes roch
that is a curriculum that is specificallydesigned for men. It uses car analogies
to relate diabetes and diabetes self managementand care. And so we've had a
great response for the community because ofthat, the men coming and excited.
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It's a space just for men.And you know, I was going back,
you know, back to what Iwas saying about the social connected and
connectedness when we ask men, whyweren't they in getting involved as involved as
we had from our ladies, right, And they were saying that this didn't
feel like there was a place wherethemselves and be able to express you know,
their needs with other men relates toright, And so they were more
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than excited. We've had, youknow, enthusiasm as we've started that initiative,
and like I said, all throughoutlast year we did those workshops,
and I would say before that wewere reaching about five percent would probably be
generous, out of our participants interms of men, right, ninety five
percent were women. And so nowwe've been able to move that needle because
when we look at severe complications fordiabetes, back to your point, men
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are more affected than women. Right, Some of those stereotypes that we know,
like men can be a little bitmore stubborn or you know, not
as Thank God for our ladies they'reable to, you know, ask questions
about stubborn What are you talking about? So you know, those things affect
your health right, not being oreven a shame about not having that literacy,
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right, not not being able toknow how do I have that conversation
with the doctor? What am Isupposed to ask him? I don't even
know what questions to ask him?And so those are the things that we
go over in those workshops. Here'swhat you should be saying to the doctor,
Here's how you should look when you'reare Here's what you should do when
you're checking your sugar levels, andwhat you need to pay attention to you
and where the danger danger areas are. All those things we go at,
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we talk about in that environment.That again is welcoming to those guys and
so they feel like, Okay,I have confidence now I can do it
on my own and be better onmy own. Yeah. Ask, there's
nothing wrong right with asking. That'sit. You're never wrong and you should
never feel you know less or anythingof that sort just because you're asking us.
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Ask away. Metro health Diabetes Preventionand control. Program offers no cost
workshops as you just mentioned. Youcan sign up by calling two ten two
o seven eight eight oh two orvisit Diabetes Help SA dot com. Do
we have a Facebook page? Wedo Facebook dot com, Forward slash SA
Metro Health. Julius, thank youso much for joining us on this episode
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of Me San Antonio and sharing thisvaluable information. Uh that I know our
Latino community, but just not justthe Latino community, to your mention,
you know any any minority community thatdoes not have the knowledge the resources.
Our goal is to get it outthere and get this information out there and
make sure they get connected to ensurethat they live a happy, long,
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healthy life. Definitely, thank youfor having me