Description

Welcome to Episode 43 of 'not ARTIFICIALLY Sweetened' – we are now one year old!

Catch us on our top four streaming platforms, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts and Podbean.

This Episode is brought to you in support of diabetes awareness and care by the CDE Online Pharmacy (https://cdeonline.co.za/), the online store of choice for people living with diabetes.

If you're living with diabetes or a health professional that facilitates diabetes care, you're in the right place!

Join our journey, as we grow together in understanding, insight, and self-awareness to change lives for the better. Our deliberations are always honest, challenging and thought provoking. Nothing is off the table as we meet real people, discuss their real issues and stories, and together discover real answers to many vexing practical issues in diabetes and its care.

We start the show with our weekly SA Diabetes Advocacy message – this week, Kirsten discusses the second of five important Diabetes Advocacy Projects they will focus on in 2024, Transitional Care for 12-20-year-olds.

In response to listener request for us to focus a bit more on ‘education’, we revisit the principles of the often-misunderstood classification of diabetes, into type 1, type 2, gestational and ‘other’ specific types. In doing this, we dispel the many myths and misconceptions around this - we hope that the insights provided will help to change the medical and self-care of diabetes.

With one of the ‘other’ specific forms of diabetes in mind, we introduce our studio guest for this week, Andries Els. Andries works as a heavy vehicle warehouse manager in Johannesburg, and as a specialist in K9, firearm and security training. Andries and his career choices are remarkable given that he also has diabetes because of cystic fibrosis related damage to his pancreas.

With an amazingly positive attitude (and powerful physical appearance), given the usual historical poor outcomes associated with cystic fibrosis, Andries shares

• The appearance of diabetes during his high school years, while battling many of the usual complications of cystic fibrosis
• The great family support he has always had
• Starting insulin pump therapy
• Dealing with the massive demands of cystic fibrosis care in addition to managing diabetes
• Essential differences in nutritional care for type 1 diabetes versus cystic fibrosis related diabetes, and the need to take pancreatic enzyme replacements
• Battling with health professionals who do not understand the management of cystic fibrosis related diabetes
• Recently starting a miraculous but difficult-to-access therapy (unnamed for legal reasons) for the condition, which has essentially normalised his health, his cystic fibrosis related risks and his expected lifespan
• News on pragmatic advocacy for this medication.

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or contributions for future episodes, or if you'd like to advertise on this podcast, email us @ Podcast@CDEDiabetes.co.za

For health professionals working in diabetes

The CDE Academy Foundation Course in Diabetes Care for Health Professionals is a real-world-applicable online learning experience at one’s own pace. Access it 24/7/365 & earn 30 CPD points: https://academy.cdeonline.co.za/

Learna/University of South Wales offer a one-year, online, part-time, distance learning Postgraduate Diploma in Diabetes Care. Sign up for a second year to earn an MSc in Diabetes. Gain a competitive edge and enhance your client care! Register @ https://my.learna.ac.uk/l/diabetes-ambassador-cde