Punjabi diabetes information: case

Recent events in Mumbai, India, have left me feeling saddened by the tragedy and homesick for the place. I am Italian, but I spent many years of my childhood in India. We stayed many times at the Taj Mahal hotel, and at the Oberoi, brief moments of luxury before we made our way to where we were really going to stay, often in places where we ran around barefoot, got water in clay pots from a nearby well, milk and yogurt from the cow farm next door, and read our bedtime stories by the light of candles. Today I post a case from India.

Scenario

A family comes into my room (father, mother and two young boys) and tell me they have just visited their doctor who recommended that they come see me. The father has diabetes and is having trouble understanding everything the doctor says because his first language isn't English. I can tell from their accent that they are probably from India or Pakistan. When I ask what language they feel more comfortable with they tell me it is Punjabi. They tell me they are from Chandigarh, which is the capital of the part of Punjab that remained part of India.

The Open Hand Monument in Chandigarh

They are pleased and surprised when I tell them I visited Chandigarh even though I unfortunately don't remember it because I was too young.

We chat a bit more and then I let them know that I may be able to find some information for them in Punjabi which pleases them very much.

Resolution

I have a feeling that resources from the UK will be most likely to have information in Punjabi.* Sure enough Diabetes UK has information on several topics related to diabetes: What is diabetes?; Managing diabetes; Healthy lifestyle; Diabetic complications; Your eyes and diabetes etc.

The UK Department of Health also has some information in Punjabi** about diabetes: Living with diabetes: your future and wellbeing.

I prefer to offer at least some Canadian content, and because the family is computer literate, I also give them a link to a video from Fraser Health, BC: Living well with diabetes, and a booklet: On the road to diabetes health. I tell them that if any of the information from the Canadian resources is different from the UK information, they should follow the Canadian recommendations, and if they are not sure they should ask their doctor to clarify.

We say goodbye and are both a little more cheerful for having met.



* They also have information in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Somali/Soomaali, Urdu and Welsh Cymraeg.

** They also have this leaflet in Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati and Urdu

Converting blood glucose measurements US > CA: case

Scenario

A young man tells me he would like to be able to convert US blood glucose levels (milligrams per deciliter: mg/DL) to Canadian (millimoles per liter: mmol/L).

Resolution

After much searching in various resources, and finally Google, I am able to find an online converter from Lifescan Inc., the people who make the OneTouch® System for monitoring blood glucose levels.

I would like to make it clear that I am in no way endorsing their products (I am not qualified to make any judgement about them), and usually I prefer to avoid information offered by such companies as it is likely biased, but in this case I decide to make an exception. The tool they provide is freely accessible and actually quite handy.

I would suggest that if you are looking for reliable information about diabetes there are other better resources. To list just a few:

Canadian Diabetes Association
recipes
Diabetes Quebec
Public Health Agency of Canada
Neuro-Patient Resource Centre
MedlinePlus - diabetes
UpToDate - diabetes

And now, without further ado, here is the link to the converter:

Blood glucose monitoring: converting measurements

Like other online converters, you can plug in the number you have and you will be given the number you want.

You can also use it to convert plasma results to whole blood results.