WISEWOMEN team up for good health

The St. Louis American

WISEWOMEN team up for good health

By Sandra Jordan Of the St. Louis American
Thursday, February 4, 2010 12:10 PM CST

When Annie Manuel of St. Louis found out two years ago that she had type 2 diabetes, her world turned upside down.

“It’s devastating when you find out it happened to you, but you have to learn how to deal with it,” she said.

Diabetes presented another condition to coexist with other health conditions. As a patient at one of the Grace Hill Health Center clinics, Manuel noticed and read a pamphlet about the WISEWOMAN health education program. After a while, she decided to see what it was all about.

“I try to watch it ? don’t eat too much greasy stuff, too much fat; try to eat oatmeal to keep down my cholesterol. I was taught all of that in that program,” Manuel said. “I don’t use that fatty, fatty stuff to fry my food. If I cook something, I mostly boil or bake.

“Eat right, do your exercises, take your medication. I mostly start off with the basics ? not too long, about five minutes of a little stretching … marching in place like a soldier … maybe a little jumping, like jumping rope or something like that ?10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night.”

WISEWOMAN, the Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation, is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative funded through the states to public health providers to help women access health screenings, treatments and lifestyle education to help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Although Manuel has diabetes, the condition can cause complications for other health conditions, such as hypertension.

“This stuff ain’t nothing to play with,” Manuel admits. “You’ve have to listen and do it. You can’t just be sad.”

WISEWOMAN goes beyond one specific condition to foster holistic health.

“We do screenings for risk factors for atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, cerebral vascular disease and if we find that women have any of those risk factors, we are in a good position to help those women manage those risk factors to decrease their risk and prevent heart attacks and strokes,” said Dr. Thomas Kernan, of Grace Hill Health Centers.

Risk factors they can address include high cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, lack of exercise and being overweight ? all in order to help women make a positive difference in their health.

Patients are assigned a health coach who partners with the women to better self-manage their conditions, making the care patient-driven and patient-centered.

“If you give people the right tools and the proper tools and educate them, then they will be able to manage their own care by involving their health care professionals in making sure they are the most important person on the health care team,” said Cynthia Snow, chronic disease manager at Grace Hill.

Carmen Miller, Manuel’s health coach, has been a positive influence on Manuel’s overall health.

“She does call and make sure I keep all of my appointments. They remind me that ‘You’ve got a mammogram appointment;’ ‘You’ve got to make you an eye doctor’s appointment;’ make sure I check my feet. She helps me a lot,” Manuel said.

“It is very important to get your mammogram, get your pap smears, we educate them on breast self-exams, and making sure they keep their appointments,” Miller said. “If you can’t afford your insurance ? they will pay. They will pay for your mammogram screenings also they will pay for your visits to coming and see the doctor as well. A lot of women when they find that out, they really take advantage of that because a lot of them don’t have the money.”

Having someone who consistently checked on her well-being and who offered an encouraging word made all the difference for Manuel. And a phone call from her health coach sometimes spurs inactivity into action.

“When I am down and don’t want to, she’ll call me and say, ‘What are you up to today and did you exercise yet?’

And I said, ‘No.’

And she’ll say, ‘Well I think you’d better get up and get started!’ She’ll give you a pep talk and you’ll be on your way about doing it. And if she hadn’t of called, I probably wouldn’t have did it that day,” Manuel concedes.

A year after participating in WISEWOMAN, Manuel practices portion control, exercises regularly and takes medication as prescribed. Sticking to the routine has allowed Manuel to lose weight and have more energy to enjoy being a healthier great-grandmother.

“At first I was weighing like 223 and I’m down to 209 now. And my A1c is 5.9, so I am doing something right!” she said.

The A1c is used to monitor glucose control in diabetics over a 3-month time period. This value does not fluctuate as much as finger stick blood sugar readings. An A1c range between 4-5.9 percent is usually considered normal.

“You eat half of everything. You don’t eat a whole big course of everything. Mostly she said you can eat most anything as long as it’s not too much of it,” Manuel said.

“If you just keep that part in mind, you can always get it right.”

For more information on The WISEWOMAN health education program at Grace Hill, call 314-814-8749.