Bay Area native Anna Simos had always been the healthy one in her family — never a candy eater, she said — but, at 15, she was diagnosed with what had been the traditional family illness: diabetes. “My grandmother and uncle had Type 1 diabetes and my father Type 2, so with that diagnosis, I knew what it meant,” she said. “It was sobering and I knew there was no easy way out.” She remembers that day quite clearly. “The doctor brought in a syringe with insulin and told me to give myself a shot. I asked him how many times do I do this every day? Probably four to six, he said. I was not happy.”
Over the years, and through a pancreas and two kidney transplants, Simos learned how to balance her diet, lifestyle, medications and essential medical equipment to live a life with Type 1 diabetes. “I had figured it out for myself, but I began meeting others with diabetes and I decided I would do something with this on-the-job training.” She also earned a master’s degree in public health and a master’s degree in the epidemiology of diabetes.
She received so much of her medical care at Stanford Health Care, she began to dream about what she could do to help there, too. Today, Simos, now a certified diabetes educator and diabetes clinical research coordinator at Stanford, will see one of her combined personal and professional goals met: Stanford Health Care’s first Diabetes Prevention and Wellness Health Fair, being held today in recognition of the upcoming World Diabetes Day.
The fair is a free, public event, and Charlie Kimball, a Formula 1 Indy car driver who has diabetes, will be there to talk about how his experience living with diabetes. Among the other features of the event: Fifteen non-profits and vendors, clinicians from Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health, and other diabetes education experts will offer free risk assessments, updates on diabetes care technology, food demonstrations and nutrition education. “Everyone’s coming together for the first time,” Simos said. “You’re going to learn something if you come, because it’s not just about diabetes — it’s also about prevention.”
Simos is pushed by the numbers: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 387 million adults have a form of diabetes. About 86 million American adults— more than 1 in 3 are pre-diabetic. That condition, defined by blood sugar levels that are above normal but not high enough for a Type 2 diagnosis, increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes. “Diabetes and pre-diabetes are at epidemic levels,” Simos said. She knows how much easier it is to make the dietary and behavior changes than to develop the disease and possibly suffer the worst of its consequences. “We want to help prevent the transplant, the amputation, the blindness — that we can turn around with care,” she said. “We need more people educated about the disease. If we can just get people to start thinking about their risk factors, we can take a different approach to diabetes: prevention.”
Previously: A conversation about the diabetes epidemic and The role of nutrition in diabetes prevention and management
Photo, of Anna Simos meeting with patient Ed Grey earlier this week, by Norbert von der Groeben
