Recently, Dr. Lakshmi Seshadri, MD, internist, affiliated with Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, visited the Weekley Family YMCA in Houston to speak with a group of community members about diabetes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 29 million Americans have diabetes. What’s more alarming, 1 out of 4 individuals with diabetes doesn’t know they have the disease. Dr. Seshadri is passionate about educating others on diabetes because she’s one of the 29 million Americans living with the disease.
“Opportunities like this to get out into the community are important,” says Dr. Seshadri. “I think it’s easier for people to open up and talk candidly about their health in a more informal setting like this where you’re away from the examination room and are able to just have a conversation.”
Anthony Church drove from Missouri City to listen to Dr. Seshadri. “She was wonderful and even more impressive is that she’s a patient, she’s living with it,” says Church. “Hearing about diabetes from her perspective was especially beneficial to me.”
Diabetes is a condition in which the body doesn’t metabolize blood sugar properly. Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use as energy. The pancreas is an organ that produces insulin which helps to get the glucose into the cells of our body. When you have diabetes, either the pancreas isn’t producing enough insulin or the insulin produced isn’t being used efficiently which can cause sugar to build up in the blood.