Is Diabetes Preventable?

There are many myths and half-truths out there about diabetes. This chronic condition can negatively affect your health in multiple ways, so it’s worth understanding the facts about diabetes and diabetes prevention.

At Living Water Community Health and Wellness Clinic, our primary care and family medicine doctors can help with your diabetes or prediabetes. Dr. Erick Madrigal and the Living Water Clinic team can also help you and your family stay in good health — and in many cases, that includes preventing diabetes.

Your risk of diabetes

If you have diabetes, the way your body produces or uses insulin — an important, naturally occurring hormone — becomes a problem for your health. There are two types of diabetes. Are you at risk for Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that typically can’t be prevented. In this type of diabetes, your immune system attacks your own cells, resulting in lasting damage. Your pancreas is the organ in your abdomen that produces insulin. With Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas may stop producing insulin completely.

Your cells need insulin to extract energy from your bloodstream. Without the right amount of insulin, glucose remains in your blood, resulting in high blood sugar. People with Type 1 diabetes often need to take synthetic insulin.

You have a higher risk of developing Type 1 diabetes if this condition runs in your family. Type 1 diabetes is often diagnosed during childhood or the teen years.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes develops in childhood or adulthood, and it can often be prevented. Before full-blown diabetes occurs, your doctor may diagnose you with prediabetes. With the right treatment and lifestyle changes, you may be able to prevent prediabetes from turning into full-blown diabetes or even recover from developing Type 2 diabetes in its early stages.

With Type 2 diabetes, your body continues to produce insulin, but your cells develop resistance, meaning they can’t use the insulin normally. Your body may produce more insulin to address the problem and regulate glucose absorption, but it can’t keep up. Your blood sugar may become dangerously high, causing health complications.

Your risk for Type 2 diabetes goes up if you’re overweight or obese. Genetic factors can also increase your risk of developing this condition.

Diabetes prevention and management

The experienced family medicine team at Living Water Clinic supports you with diabetes prevention and management. We provide our patients with a comprehensive care plan for diabetes, which could include:

• Changes to your diet
• Changes to your exercise habits
• Medical insulin supplementation or medication to control blood sugar
• Blood sugar monitoring

Your provider shows you how to handle your medications and helps you understand how your lifestyle affects your risk of diabetes.

If you have concerns about diabetes, get in touch and get the information that can help protect your lifelong health and wellness. For the support you need to prevent diabetes or to manage your condition after developing diabetes, contact the team at Living Water Community Health and Wellness Clinic in Porterville, Lindsay, or Visalia, California. 

Our newest Family Nurse Practitioner 

Family Nurse Practitioner, Christian Sarceno, joined Living Water Clinic in January 2023. He has been serving patients at the Lindsay and Porterville location. Christian started his journey as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 2018. His first year in practice was during the Covid-19 pandemic, due to this experience Christain quickly learned to adjust with medical processes. He states that it was a unique period in time where it strengthened his skills in an unteachable way. 

Christian has always worked in healthcare and has tended to individuals his entire adult life. He has had the privilege of holding a newborn in the morning and holding the hand of a hospice patient in the evening. He views his Nurse Practitioner role as the capstone of his career. Some of Christain’s goals is to be a provider that can be a bedrock for growth, health, and spiritual wellbeing, and to stay humble yet grounded. 

Christian focuses on servicing central California patients, because he enjoys being an advocate for the latino community. He is a latino immigrant and English is his second language, he appreciates providing services to patients in a language that they know and love. Christian’s family is also rooted in the central valley. He recognizes that the community is an environment conducive to growth, love, and faith. 

When Christian is not assisting with patients, he enjoys working with reef tanks, hydroponics, 3D printers, permaculture, and renewal energies. 

The one thing that Chrisitan recommends to patients to help improve their health is that once patients correct their gut health everything else will follow. 

To schedule your appointment with Christian call (559)-562-1361 or schedule online.