The 'quiet' thief: diabetic clinic quells fears while treating menacing disease.

• Author: Grenn, Ben
• Position: DIABETES

Shhhhhhhh! Diabetes, like cancer, was once thought to be taboo to talk about; it was rarely brought up in public circles.

Diabetic Consultants of Alaska wants to change all that. In fact, they want to shout out about the disease to Alaskans, if not the world.

Central among its primary goals, Diabetic Consultants is to help and equip those already diagnosed with the "quiet" disease, to shed light on diabetes through education and to prevent it from becoming even more confining.

"Eight to 10 percent (28 million) of the population has a form of diabetes, five to seven million of those afflicted, don't know they have it," says Diabetic Consultants' Dr. Robert Skala. "That's a statement that is both alarming and disquieting. But with proper education, we can hopefully stem the tide of this illness."

Diabetic Consultants is a multidisciplinary clinic that was established in 2005 by Drs. Skala and Ross Tanner.

The purpose of the clinic is to serve as a resource for patients with not only diabetes but also elevated blood pressure or cholesterol problems.

POOH-POOHING MYTHS

There are many myths surrounding diabetes that the two friends and doctors are hoping to dispel.

"Not all people who are obese are diabetic, and conversely, neither are all very thin individuals immune from the disease," he said.

Other persistent myths that doctors like Skala and Tanner are trying to stamp out include: all diabetes is inherited; people with diabetes should never eat sugar and sweets, and people can have borderline diabetes for many years.

Special emphasis is placed on the prevention of complications through a combination of different treatment modalities. They include, but are not limited to, education in dietary management through nutritionists; establishing exercise programs with the help of exercise physiologists; and the implementation of medications, which complement the patients' status of the disease.

"We don't want to simply say to our patients, 'take this pill or that pill' and then send them on their way home. We are here to treat the whole patient," Skala says.

By utilizing the proactive approach, many patients are on fewer medications with better control of the state of their disease and experience less complications. In addition to routine testing and evaluation, Diabetic Consultants offers advanced cholesterol testing, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure evaluation, three-day continuous glucose monitoring and cardiac stress testing.

ONE AND ONLY

...