June Calendar of Monthly Events

I must apologize for the lateness of this post, this has been a busy month and a lot of new topics of interest that I pushed to get written and this kept being postponed.  

There are three monthly events for June and all of them are important for people with diabetes. National Home Safety Month may be questionable, but if you are like me and have neuropathy, then safety is of the utmost importance. This year's theme, "Safety Starts with Me." Make sure that you wear shoes or protective slippers that will protect your feet. If you drop and break something, make sure it is all picked up. A shard of glass, or Pyrex and if your feet are unprotected, a cut may not be caught until it is infected. This makes foot inspection very important and even more important is vacuuming the entire area necessary.

Also, make sure many things are secured and won't fall or cause you to trip over them. There are hundreds of accidents that are never anticipated and any one of them can cause cuts or even severe bruises. This is the reason not to be barefoot even in the house or apartment. There are other accidents and while I don't like mentioning them, many people are just not careful around most bedroom furniture and stub their feet on the bed legs. Oh, yes, I have done this myself and had the broken big toe to prove it. Fortunately, I did not have diabetes at the time, but it still was a long healing period. Think of what else could go wrong and it probably will. With diabetes, injury prevention is a strong part of home safety. Do your part every month and think what you can do during National Home Safety Month to prevent problems during the rest of the year.

Vision Research Month happens to follow Healthy Vision Month. In the last 20 years, eye health research has linked diet and nutrition with a decreased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). A clinical study of older adults concluded that taking an antioxidant vitamin or mineral supplement significantly reduced the risk of advanced AMD progression in some people. Additionally, today there is significant evidence that vitamin D plays a part in preventing AMD.

This is why it is very important to have your eyes check regularly and when possible support vision research. There are too many rare eye disorders for which there is no research taking place.

The last national month event is employee wellness month. National Employee Wellness Month is an annual initiative that helps business leaders learn how companies are successfully engaging employees in healthy lifestyles. It showcases how prevention, coupled with supportive social communities like the workplace, can improve employee health and productivity, lower healthcare costs, and create a healthy workplace environment.

Employee health directly impacts healthcare costs, which is a board-level issue for every US organization and company. We can do something about this. 75% of these costs are driven by preventable and highly manageable chronic diseases, like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. National Employee Wellness Month brings attention to the workplace’s role in helping employees make healthy choices that make a sustainable impact on costly lifestyle-related disease.