National Handwashing Awareness | Healthy Holiday Eating Guide | Stress Management | Holiday Driving Safety | New Smart Insulin Pen

DECEMBER 2020

NATIONAL HANDWASHING AWARENESS WEEK: DECEMBER 1-7

December 1-7 is National Hand Washing Awareness Week.

Simply put, washing hands save lives. Proper hand hygiene keeps you from getting sick and stops the spread of germs and disease.

Hand washing awareness week is more important than ever during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic and as we navigate cold and flu season.

Many people don't know how to properly wash their hands. According to the CDC, only about 5% of the population does it correctly. The CDC recommends washing your hands for 30 seconds, 15 seconds at the very least. Try singing happy birthday to yourself to ensure you're washing your hands long enough. Check out the hand washing chart at the bottom of this article for the proper techniques as directed by the World Health Organization.

People that wash their hands have 24% less sicks days due to a respiratory illness and 51% fewer sick days due to a stomach illness. It even reduces diarrhea rates by 40% and respiratory infections by 20%.

The most important times to wash your hands are before and after preparing food and after going to the bathroom.

Harmless bacteria is most prominent under our finger nails, so it's very important to wash underneath them.

People with diabetes are especially vulnerable to infectious diseases due to their compromised immune systems brought on by hyperglycemia.

Studies have reported a higher risk of infectious diseases among people with diabetes, which makes good hand hygiene a critical part of diabetes self-care, since handwashing is proven to prevent infectious disease. Preventing disease means fewer diabetes-related complications and a healthier individual.*

For people with diabetes that finger stick to test their blood glucose levels (or CGM users that finger stick to calibrate their device), proper hand washing is important to ensure reliable and accurate readings. For example, if a patient recently ate an orange and had residue on their fingers, the blood glucose number may read significantly higher than it actually is, which can cause inaccurate insulin dosing.

The lack of clean hands is a major contributor to illness around the world. It's the most simple and easiest way to prevent infection transmission. So this December, let this awareness week be a reminder to always practice good hand hygiene. Handwashing: it can save lives!

*Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

MANAGING HOLIDAY STRESS –

Living Sane as the Holidays Approach

You now have been on your “wellness journey” for several months. You may have conquered adding physical activity to your daily life, added carrots or squash as new meal choices, even gone to the doctor to have your labs drawn. Now it's time for the holidays. You can almost smell the turkey or “Tofu Turkey” and hear those jingle bells. Then, why do you feel so jittery? Maybe even out of sorts as December appears on the calendar.

Holidays are supposed to be fun, joyous occasions. But for many they bring an unusual amount of stress.

Do the children have commitments to activities and events and you have time constraints?

Are your in-laws due in from Thanksgiving to the week before Christmas? Will they be at your home preparing your spouse’s family’s traditional holiday meals?

Is this the busiest time of year at your work and you will be working overtime from December 1 until the New Year?

Does the excitement of holiday shopping just get you down? Who to buy for, what to buy, how much to spend on a gift? Does this mean your wallet will be empty all the way to Easter, or will you say “charge it please” and then look at a mountain of credit card debt in the New Year?

Will you spend the holidays alone? Do you feel that to prepare a celebration for one is something you cannot bear?

All of these issues and situations fill our lives with holiday stress and anxiety. Long working hours, family commitments and budgetary restraints can be stressors during the holidays. The key is how you are able to react and find a solution to manage this stress.

How do you react to additional stress in your life? Do you find yourself eating more? Munching on that one more cookie or slice of cake that work buddies have shared. For you, is it so much more enjoyable when you share holiday treats with others?

Do you find yourself accepting more glasses of eggnog or holiday cheer? For some individuals, stress reduction comes with an increased intake of alcoholic beverages. It is important to remember that if you have experienced successful weight loss on your wellness journey that alcoholic beverages are not calorie free.

When travelling your path to wellness did you stop smoking? Now with holiday stress do you find yourself yearning for a cigarette? Do holiday parties have you wanting to do something with your hands and that cigarette, cigar or pipe finds its way back into your life? This can seem particularly true when one is drinking more alcoholic beverages. For some highly stressed individuals, reaching for that smoke and drink seem to go hand in hand at holiday parties.

Tips to Reduce & Manage Holiday Stress

Learn to say no. You do not need to attend every party, nor have your child attend every event they are invited to. Select several or just a few and create holiday traditions at home.

Make gifts at home for presents. Gifts that offer time spent or activities performed may bring fonder memories than the purchase of an expensive toy.

Select a cost limit for gift purchases. This can reduce the future stress of nagging credit card bills in the New Year.

Offer and buy a gift for someone less fortunate. The idea that one is thankful for what they have and can offer happiness to another is a spiritual gift of gratitude for the giver.

Understand why having guests increases your stress level. Do you feel you cannot meet their expectations? Do they require you to behave differently, and in a way that is uncomfortable for you, thus increasing your holiday anxiety?

Does the job stress overwhelm you? Can you think of stress reducers like exercise, prayer or meditation that will allow you to reach a happy place and overcome the work stressors?

Stress can be dealt with by emotion focused based solutions and problem-focused solving techniques. Stress will most likely continue to build if not dealt with appropriately. Denying the problem and not confronting stress in an ostrich-like approach (avoidance). This approach only allows stress to continue to build and have negative effects on your health, which may interfere with your individual “wellness journey.”

COVID-19

COVID-19 ON THE RISE!

Stay safe and well during this pandemic winter.

As COVID-19 cases continue to spike, it's important to understand the symptoms and incubation period for transmission. This is especially important for a person with diabetes, since COVID has shown to cause severe health complications and even hospitalization for those infected with the virus.

You can spread COVID without knowing it because you may not be experiencing symptoms.

It can take five days or more to develop symptoms with COVID – if you have the flu – you can begin developing symptoms immediately or within a day or two.

Read below for how to distinguish Influenza, the common cold and allergies from COVID-19.

Source: https://bit.ly/37k14re

HEALTHY HOLIDAY GUIDE

The holiday season is here. Many Americans gain weight between Thanksgiving and New Years Day. The holidays can be a special time and also a stressful time. It should be a time to enjoy the season and not stress over being perfect, but strive to make some healthier choices and not go completely off the rails.

Following a few simple tips and healthier behaviors will help prevent holiday weight gain and harm to your diabetes self-management.

Holiday Eating Guide

Have a plan for holiday parties and holiday dinners

Be a picky eater – the good kind! Look at the food available, and pick which items rate a “10” on a 1-10 scale of your favorite foods.
Choose the foods that are seasonal and traditional favorites, and avoid the ones you can have any time of the year.
Savor the flavor of your favorite “10” foods, and have nothing in your hand while anything is in your mouth. This slows you down and helps you truly enjoy the experience.
Make some rules for yourself. For example, put only three foods on your plate at one time, or eat only one plate of food.
Resign from the "Clean Plate Club" once and for all. Eating food you don’t want or don’t have room for is wasting it, too.

Make time for exercise; the payoffs are huge

Your blood sugar will be easier to control and you are less likely to gain weight.
Exercise is relaxing and energizing – at the same time!
Even 10 minutes of activity helps, but the more the merrier.
Make exercise your down time for needed time alone, or do it with family members. You might start a new family tradition of more physical activity during the holidays.

Savor the season

Ditch the diet mentality. Don’t try to be perfect with your eating, but shoot for healthy choices most of the time. This will help you to not feel deprived and prevent you from ever going too overboard with eating.
Remember the best things about the holiday season aren’t things!

HOLIDAY DRIVING SAFETY

The month of December typically brings more driving in our lives –holiday gift shopping, the various parties for work or with friends, holiday recitals and travel for family gatherings on or around Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and all the way into New Year's.

For a person with diabetes, getting into a vehicle always requires some thought. Not just that you must check the oil or gas, or adjust your mirror, seat or air, a driver with type 1 or type 2 diabetes must check-in with themselves, too.

It is important to know your blood glucose number before starting your car. If it is at a number where you have a possibility of dropping to a low or experiencing a hypoglycemic episode, have a snack. After eating your snack, wait fifteen minutes and take another glucose check before snapping that seat belt and turning the key.

Make sure your vehicle always has a supply of non-perishable snacks: crackers, juice, hard candies, fruit snacks, jerky or nuts, as well as a supply of rapid acting glucose sources such as: glucose tabs, glucose shots, glucose paste or a tube of cake icing.

Consider this "check-in" with yourself similar to checking the gas gauge of your vehicle before your journey – too close to empty is never good on either long or short trips.

This is a very important topic to remember as we enter into the holiday season.

NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: INPEN

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Key Features

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Keeps track of your active insulin
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Monitors insulin temperature
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Integrates with CGMs
Creates shareable reports with time-based meal analysis
Integrates with Bluetooth-connected glucose meters
Helps you make decisions based on your data
Available through your pharmacy benefit.

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SEASONS GREETINGS

During this month we celebrate Christmas on Friday, December 25.

DMS will close in observance of the holiday on December 24 & 25.

From all of us at DMS, we wish you and your family a safe and healthy holiday!

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