Oswego Health, Kinney Drugs Team Up For Free Diabetes Screenings

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OSWEGO, NY – Oswego Health and Kinney Drugs have teamed up to provide four free diabetes screenings during the month of November, which is American Diabetes Month.

Oswego Health’s Diabetes Educator Nola Gardner will conduct the screenings.

The dates, times and locations of the screenings are as follows: Nov. 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Parish; Nov. 15 from Noon to 4 p.m. in Oswego and on Nov. 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Mexico.

Oswego Health Endocrinologist Francis Clifford Arce, MD, shows off several of the latest devices for treating diabetes.

Oswego Health Endocrinologist Francis Clifford Arce, MD, recommends that individuals who have a family history of diabetes take advantage of these free screenings.

He also urges those with heart disease, high blood pressure or a high cholesterol level, to be screened.

“More and more people are definitely being diagnosed with diabetes and there are still a good number of individuals left to be diagnosed,” he said.

According to Dr. Arce, those with diabetes need to learn not only how to control their sugar intake, but also their carbohydrates.

“We are educating people now that diabetes is really affected by their carbohydrate intake and not just the sweets,” Dr. Arce said. “The biggest source of sugar is carbohydrates and once people understand this they gain more in their diabetes control.”

Those with diabetes should find that today there are many more convenient ways to treat the disease, said Dr. Arce.

“It has come a long way,” he said. “There are now different ways of administering insulin, including a pen style device and a insulin pump that delivers insulin constantly that is programmed by the patient and medical provider.”

He added that for those older diabetes patients, the readout on the meters is in a larger print.

According to national statistics, 20.8 million Americans, or seven percent of the population has diabetes.

It is estimated that 6.2 million, or nearly one-third of these individuals have not yet been diagnosed.

The most common form of diabetes is type 2, where either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin.

Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use sugar.

Oswego Health has a monthly diabetes support group, which is lead by Diabetes Educator Nola Gardner.

The public is invited to attend the support group meetings.

The next two meetings will be Nov. 21 and Dec. 19 from noon until 1 p.m. in the lower level conference room of Oswego Hospital.

Gardner also holds free monthly diabetes screenings at Oswego Hospital from 7:30 to 10 a.m. the second Tuesday of each month in Suite G70.

She is also the only certified pump trainer in the area and in this role she educates new diabetes patients on how to use a diabetes pump.

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