Diabetes can’t slow him down

Diabetes Week may come once each year…but unfortunately for diabetics, they’ve got to deal with the disease 24/7. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods, who is no stranger to diabetes in her own life, profiles one man who’s taking an aggressive approach to his condition.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

For the past twelve years, Leo Lodge, a type one diabetic patient, has been injecting insulin to control his medical condition. Lodge was first diagnosed with the illness when he was nineteen years old.

Leo Lodge, Diabetic Patient

?Very tired, always want to drink water, you know and at night I can?t sleep good because every minute I want to urine.?

As with most diabetic patients, Lodge could not believe the news. He was in denial for some time…that is until he slipped into a diabetic coma and remained unconscious for a week. A normal sugar count is between sixty to one hundred and ten. Lodge?s numbers had skyrocketed to eight hundred…and he collapsed.

Leo Lodge

?It was a funny feeling knowing that I have the diabetes and I didn?t really want to admit that I have it and sometimes I would maybe deny and would want take the insulin.?

Lodge?s family is no stranger to diabetes. Last December, he lost his mother, sixty-eight year old Eva Lodge, after she developed complications due to diabetes. And while heredity may have played a role in Leo?s illness, he firmly believes it was poor dietary practices that led to his early diagnosis.

Leo Lodge

?Probably I used to drink about eight sodas to ten sodas for the day every day for four years and I that?s what I figure caused me to come down with the diabetes from an early stage.?

Today he is committed to living a healthy lifestyle. Lodge not only takes his medication on time, but engages in all forms of exercise, enabling him to maintain a good weight and control the diabetes. In September, he competed in the gruelling Lionman Triathlon. He placed thirty seventh and received a certificate and medal for his accomplishment

Beth McBride, Health Educator, KHMH

?Leo is a poster boy and he?s far less likely to develop complications of diabetes because of his active lifestyle.?

While Lodge does not have a problem of obesity, The International Diabetes Federation reports that the risk of diabetes increases with weight. Health educators like Beth McBride say this factor puts a large number of Belizeans in danger.

Beth McBride, Health Educator, KHMH

?One of the main risk factors for developing diabetes is being obese or over weight and ninety percent of the world population of people with diabetes is type two and if we can reduce that number, that will be a great thing.?

But are Belizeans getting the message? McBride says that while they do speak to their diabetic patients about healthy living, there is far more that can be done.

Beth McBride

?It?s all a matter of education I think and we only have four diabetes educators in the country. Diabetes educators don?t just teach diabetes, they teach healthy lifestyle. So we need a lot more educators and we hope to do something about that early next year and train educators in the country.?

Also I think people find it hard to change the habits. They say they?re families are overweight so they are going to be overweight and that?s not necessarily the case. You know people can make healthy lifestyle changes, loose the weight and be healthy.?

It?s a commitment thirty-one year old Lodge intends to keep and encourages all Belizeans to do the same.

Leo Lodge B>

?Before the day is out sometimes, you just have the urge and the courage to say maybe go walk from here to town. If you are an older person, you take a stroll through the town and do your business and that will help you as well. If you are a young person, you could maybe play a sport, ride you bike, play your basketball or football or whatever. That?s a good start of exercise to exercise.?