 I'm Wendy Lo, and I'm your volunteer buddy as we journey to take your health back. We are coming to you live from downtown Honolulu from the studios of Think Tech Hawaii. Think Tech Hawaii hosts about 45 very diverse and colorful shows monthly. Today our topic of discussion will be on a diabetes life of passion. We will be talking about diabetes background, clinical information, and lifestyle support. Students to expand education, statistics, outreach programs, teaching, training, instructing, CDC links, general information, and that's a lot, isn't it? But we're going to try and capture it all. What I would like you to take away from today's show is the discussion in statistics. Remember the number. Who is affected and education? No one is immune. The tour de cure, nutrition and exercise, and much more. So today I'd like to welcome a dear friend, amazing volunteer for the American Diabetes Association. This gentleman gives tires tirelessly, and you know how they say when you retire, you become more tired because you're working harder now. So I'd like to welcome master LC trainer, Doug Park. Aloha Doug. Aloha. Good to hear from you, Doug. So you know, just tell us a little bit about your history of who you were and what you did before you came to ADA. Well, pretty much because I'm a senior already, so it's pretty long, so I'll try to make it concise. Anyway, I was in business for almost 30 years in the food industry, and I stopped. That was my first go around as getting into retirement. I came out and started another company into construction. That lasted 12 years, and along the way I was already a diabetic. So then my third go around now is getting involved with Diabetes Association. And it's been very great, terrific for me. It's opened my eyes and helped me ground myself with diabetes and helped build my passion towards getting diabetes out to the public. Wow. So you mentioned that you are a diabetic. Are you a diabetic type one or type two? I'm a type two diabetic and have been one for 51 years. Wow. So you speak passionately from your heart and from your pancreas, I should say, about diabetes. And I know of all people you must know a lot about the different numbers that are just so prevalent here in Hawaii. Can you share some statistics with us, Doug? Sure. So basically in Hawaii, as opposed to the world and the nation, the world and the nation represents roughly about 30% of the population with diabetes, but here in Hawaii it's 65%, which is an astounding number to tell people and talk to them about. And they should all know that it also involves all four different areas regarding diabetes, like one type two gestational and pre-diabetes. All right. So that slide just showed us some of the numbers that we're looking at. I know that I've been on the board of directors for the last 10 years for the American Diabetes. When I first came on board, Doug, it was kind of crazy the numbers. At that time, I want to just say we were 1.4 million people in Hawaii and we quoted about 154,000 diabetics here in Hawaii. And now 10 years later, we're reporting over 600,000 diabetics in the state of Hawaii and that is like an epidemic beyond because it's now one to one, I mean, just pretty much one to one that are diabetic here in Hawaii. And I think you work very hard and tirelessly on trying to educate people about that. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. And getting out there to the public is one of the major efforts by ourselves and the Diabetes Association and, like I said, it's education, education, education. Right. We need to get out there and spread the word. Yeah. And I know that you're doing the best you can, you're everywhere, every day, not even just riding your bike and getting the word out, but you're sitting at grocery stores. I know Time Supermarket is a great partner of ours and all the different other stores that come on board to help us. But what can somebody do independently to just assess where they are with their diabetes health? Well, we have what we call a type 2 risk test that is available through the mail if we need to get a copy of it. It's also available through our offices as well as myself, out in the train. So all they need to do is look at the type 2 risk test and they'll be able to download the form that comes with a program that we have available and they can do the test themselves at home in the privacy of their residents and feel safe, you know, without worrying about everybody looking over their shoulders. And also, when they do, they take the test, the bottom number after reading and doing the numbers, the bottom number should be below five. Anything above five, they need to really consider speaking to their doctors. Wow. That's a simple test. It's just answering questions about you, your lifestyle, where you're at, and that's how we can basically assess the numbers, be it low five or above five, is that correct? That's correct. Wow. I mean, that's simple. That's the first simple step that I think everybody should just be passionately wanting to take just so they personally have a piece of mind or they have to work harder at more exercise, maybe, eat less carbs, eat less sugar, just a whole gamut of things. But by taking that assessment test, what it does is it brings to their attention, hey, I better see doc because I think I may be in trouble because I know too, Doug, that there's really no such thing as pre-diabetic, right? Yeah, that's correct. But in essence, it comes down to a person really looking at the risk test that they're just taking per se, but I would have to say that there's so many factors involved. So many. As long as they go to see us, as long as they go to see their doctor, they'll be okay on getting off on the right foot and starting off in the right direction. Right. That's the right thing. Just go see your doctor after you take your assessment test. I always look at you as our poster boy for ADA, but there are other champions as well. I know on the next slide, we feature you with Dr. Parsis and that young handsome man in between. Tell us a little bit about him. Well, basically, we happen to be at one of the events and Dr. Parser and I, of course, Dr. Parser, the good looking guy next to me, of course. But the little boy, well, not little anymore, but he's in the middle and the son of Max, his name is Max Speed, and he is a type one diabetic and he's been very active and helped me support the program. And we're very fortunate to have individuals like him with the family, of course, able to help everybody out with their program that we have with type ones and type twos. The father's name is Jermaine Speed. He's one of the main fundraisers for our organization. So he's a great standout and an emotional support for our program. Right. I remember when Jermaine came to us and he shared the little Mr. Speed and we were just touched by his story and his passion to drop everything in his life to do whatever it took to start making aware this dreadful disease to other keiki in the state of Hawaii as well as to just support his son as he journeyed through this part of his life as a type one diabetic. So congratulations to all of you because I know you brought a lot of awareness through the speeds and very, very proud proud of you. And so, you know, Doug, I know that you have this grand title of being a master LC trainer for the American Diabetes Association. In short, what are some of your tasks? Don't have to have all your whole list because we don't have enough time in this 30 minute program. Just some some simple tasks. Well, basically, I'm certified to train and teach and instruct pharmacists, nurses and dieticians in a couple of special programs that are available through the organization I belong to, besides the American Diabetes Association. It's called the A-D-C-E-S organization. They just changed their corporate name. So you have to bear with me in trying to remember what the acronym was. But basically it's to help educate and train these individuals to help go out and spread the word and to promote a good life regarding diabetes. Wow. So that's a big job in itself because you have to address over 600,000 audiences when you go because everybody in that number is a diabetic registered. So I know it takes not only yourself and American Diabetes, but we have a lot of support in the community. And I know was it last year that Zippies with Pauliakota, he took the home of being our chair for our tour de cure. And he had all the Zippies totally on board with creating healthier menus. And we're very grateful to him and his company and to many, many more companies. But I know you work very closely with another local supermarket. Can you share a little bit about that with us? Yeah, Dietrich was the other supervisor with the is working with Zippies and they really brought us to the fore and raised a tremendous amount of money to help everybody. So, you know, it's a really worthwhile organization effort just not alone by themselves, but so many other major corporations that step up and helped us with, you know, just helping us raise money. And doing that in Hawaii is, you know, faced with all the other organizations that you have to work with. It was a monumental task and they did a tremendous job. Right. And then I know you spend a lot of time at one of the local supermarkets and you have a buddy there. So tell us a little bit about that. Well, I do a lot of what they call tabling. So I'll go to the various stores and it's a time supermarket chain. And a lot of them, I just happened to have a photo of them. As you can see, one of our top pharmacists, and she's the head pharmacist at the Waimalu time store. She just moved over to the Waipalu store. But that's just to give you an idea of what we do in the trade to help the sport organizations like Time Supermarket. Wow. And believe me, they do a tremendous job. Wow. And that makes a lot of sense for not just us, but for the businesses to align themselves with us, because that shows that they are very proactive in helping the community. They're not just wanting to be a supermarket and bringing us products and produce, but they also want to partner it with us to helping us get well and better. When I joined the ADA, I know that a lot of times they would call us to the capital, to the state capital, and we would be doing advocacy work. And I'm like, what is all this about? And so there's so much to be done. And I mean, until I got on board, I didn't know the depth of the work that the ADA does for the people of Hawaii as far as just battling this dreadful disease. But can you just tell us what kind of work is done on that level at the capital? Well, basically, ADA has a special program involving advocacy, which is to promote good lifestyles and everything else. But also to help promote programs and also bills that might help many of the individuals. And it just so happens that if you can see the slides that shows up two individuals that I had a chance to meet with and to promote wellness and lifestyle, and also to help and ask them for their support in promoting a couple of our bills in front of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House. One of the bills is the Insulin Price Reduction Act, which is in the process of being discussed and also hopefully passed by the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. Also, as you can see, Congressman Ed Case, so both of them were very, very supportive as long as Senator Mazie Hirono in helping support the programs and the bills that we are putting out to the trade. This is advocacy at its finest, and we're hoping to get the bills passed just next school round with Congress. Wow. That's on a whole different level, I mean, than what I signed up for. But it's exciting because I get to go and witness great strides and accomplishments of the ADA and volunteer staff as well that go to fight for this disease. And so I'm really excited that you are here with us and we have you as one of our poster boys, poster people, to be the spokesman for ADA. So right now, Doug, we will take a 60-second break and we'll be right back with more outstanding information that you can share from your heart. So thank you very much, Doug. Aloha. I'm Lillian Cumick, host of Lillian's Vegan World, the show where we talk about veganism and the plant-based diet located in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm a vegan chef and cooking instructor, and I have lots of information to share with you about how awesome this plant-based diet is. So do tune in every second Thursday from 1 p.m. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Daelyn Yanagida, one of our hosts of our Business in Hawaii talk show on the Think Tech, Hawaii. The theme of Business in Hawaii is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people. And our guests share with us their journey to building a successful business right here at home. We are streamed live on Think Tech weekly at 2 p.m. on Thursdays. Thank you so much for watching our show. I am Daelyn Yanagida, and we'll look forward to seeing you then. Aloha and welcome back. Here we are with Doug Park, our master trainer, LC trainer for the American Diabetes Association, who has given us his heart and his time and pretty much his life to help beat this dreadful disease. And how do we beat it? How do we beat this dreadful disease? First of all, education. When we're aware of what it is, first of all, and how can we not allow it to enter our lives? How can we work hard to make it not a part of our lives? And then the next part is to take action. Take action so it doesn't be a part of our lives. And there are many, many ways that the American Diabetes Association has formed so that we can get more of you out there aware. And so, Doug, I want to ask you, how do you get more of the general community engaged in fighting this dreadful disease? Well, I'm really happy you asked that question because we have actually one of our signature events coming up. It's called the Tourity Cure. And it's an event that's held annually. And this year is going to be on March 14th. Don't forget to mark your calendars, March 14th at Capulani Community at Regional Park. And what we do there is besides having the event, I want to take a pause right now to thank all of our major sponsors, our community support people, and people from the medical industry for helping us every year. And they've been instrumental in helping us raise the funds to help us fight the fight to reduce the cost and the problems with diabetes. But it's a signature event, as I mentioned. It's at Capulani Regional Park. And what we do there is in order to spread the word, we're putting up signs and posters and things like that. But we're urging everybody to now come out and join in with us. It's a three-segment event. One portion of it is a walk, which a lot of you, I think, may have been involved with before. Another segment is our run segment, which is the 5K and 10K event. And the third portion is a 10 to 25 or 15 mile bike ride. And all of these are being done to help raise the awareness. And also, of course, we need your really great support in raising our efforts to find the funds and help push through and find that all important basic problems everybody has with diabetes. Wow, sounds like a big full day. I know that when we were just to step out and we just walked, it was a big event. But once we added the tour de cure, the biking portion of it, it grew even larger because now we start even earlier and we end even later. And the course is not just around Diamond Head and or around Capulani Park. But we actually had the bikers out all the way to from Capulani Park through Kahala, Wailai, Makapu, and then they end up in Kailua. Yes, that's correct. And then they turn around and then they head back up Makapu and all the way around. But if you are a biker or you wanted a reason to bike, I think this is a great time to do so because it's very well organized. We have support throughout the route. We have medical staff. We have, if your bike has a flat or anything happens, we have people that can come on board to help you. But you get to ride down Makapu and in a safety lane and enjoy the most beautiful sight in the world coming around that bend, seeing that beautiful, beautiful shades of blue and the beautiful ocean. I mean, it's remarkable. It's spectacular. And I know money can't buy that. So think about it, guys. If you ever wanted to do it, you can start training and get your butts in motion and get it on the bike seat and get going. And plus you get to wear those nice little bike shorts. But anyway, and it's a great, great cause. So and then there's so many components like Doug was mentioning, the walk, the run and the ride. And the best part is when you finish up, we feed the bikers a nice healthy meal. And then I know we have a health tent and that health tent is the most packed ever because everyone out there is either with diabetes, either been just diagnosed with diabetes or they know of a family member or a friend with diabetes. And so they're very curious to learn about how can I help my family? How can I help my friends with this dreadful disease? And we have doctors on staff. We have many, many companies that come out to educate, to train and show us what needs to be done, what can be done? And then we have entertainment and all the bikers trickle in, depending on the length of their courses. But what other perks are there that you can think of, Doug? Well, not only that, but for a lot of people, it's getting back to, I guess, reacquait themselves with the event and also to see the new friends or meet some new people and to share thoughts about how it is to be a diabetic and living in the paradise. You know, it's one of those things for a lot of the people who come out with, it might be the first time for them. And for them, they're really surprised to see the amount of community support, all the things that we are trying to do to help improve the nature of people with diabetes. As a matter of fact, right now, if I don't mind my saying, we're gonna be starting our annual push to have what we call rest stations over at Makapu Point, where a lot of the cyclists come through on the weekends. And so we'll be there on Sundays every other week to promote that for the next, I guess six weeks coming up. So we'll hopefully be able to see many of you out there riding and cycling. But you know, there's a lot of other areas that we ask the sponsors, while we ask for their support, there's a lot of things we can do in turn for them, as well as the community. And we can't forget the medical industry and the pharmacy groups that really provide all the knowledge and support. That's a lot of people. And I know Doug, I've been doing this, I think for 10 years now. And I know that we have an annual shot or a photo that we must take every year. And however hot it is, however drenched we are, I always bring my red cape. And I find Doug as he comes through the line and I said, I got to take with this superman, I got to be superwoman with my red cape and get that photo. You actually make me look good. No, it's the cape, it's the cape. And I just look forward to receiving you as you enter back into the park. And you know, when you're on the course as well, or at the, you know, you're called Doug, I mean, Mr. Park at the park, right? So it just makes a lot of sense that you are aligning yourself with this great event, the Tour de Cure, which is coming right up. So, you know, the American Diabetes Association has a lot of very powerful and committed board members. How do they come out to support this? Well, a good example is, as you can see by the slide that we just put on, there is one of our eight board members which, you know, you're part of. He's actually in the medical industry. His name is Mark Tafoya. He's a retinopathy, which is for some of you may not know, it has to do with the vision that people have to face with problems with lifted eye, if you are diabetic. In this case, he's a specialist and it really gets down to the app, the really fine details of a person who is challenged with vision problems. But here he is on his bike and that tells you he's there to help, not only support us, but he does so much else besides not only like yourself on the board. What you do is tremendous already. And there's so many others. Dr. Tafoya is a good example of that. Wow, you know, and he actually rides the talk, I should say, he doesn't walk the talk, he rides the talk and he has a tent that he provides so people can come and ask all the questions they need to ask. You know, like, hey, I've been diabetic for only a year now. My site is like getting impaired, what should I do? He'll offer them a consult to come in and examine the eyes and then he'll assess from that point. And the very wise ones will catch this opportunity early before it gets worse or worse in. And so that's why he's there. He really wants to make sure that he helps you along your journey. So once you got the diagnosis of being diabetic, you're not in it, you're not in it alone. You have a whole team around you. I mean, like you yourself, Doug, you know, you offer your kind heart and your support just to comfort them through this time. And I know you have a booth at the tent and it's, what is it called again? It's called the red. Ryder tent. The red Ryder tent. And so in that tent, you welcome all the diabetics and you know, you're asking them, how are you doing, how are you feeling? You know, because they have a different whole physical attention that they need. So you're there to recognize that because you yourself know more about it than most people. So we're so grateful that you're always there at that tent and just welcoming all the red riders, I should say. So how can, you know, if we talk so much about this and it's coming right up, how can people get involved with this, Doug? Well, you know, we've got, you know, a lot of us will be spraying the word, of course, but we'll be part, if you look, there'll be, you know, Brooke Lee is gonna be helping to spread the word with events, et cetera. And she'll be doing her talk show on Sundays. But with the slide, if you look at myself being part of the riding group, how do they get involved? Well, you can call me or reach out to me. My email is available very easily as well as my phone number, which Wendy here has access to. And, you know, I'm sure she's probably tired of having to tell me things, but I will tell you that she is a really fantastic person and we all wanna thank her for all that she does for us. But, you know, that's just a small segment of what everybody, you know, we'd like to see everybody get involved and we need to get more people out there. We urge them to get involved and support us. Diabetes is not gonna go away until we find a cure. And when we do, then things will change. But up to then, we really ask for your support. We ask for your, we urge you to help us out, you know, help us by fundraising for us, through us or coming out and volunteering your services at the event on that day, which is on, don't forget, March 14th. It's a Capulani Regional Park and we'll be seeing you all there. And believe me, it is a really satisfying time for you. It's a great day. Yes, and I also wanna put a shout out to Brooke Lee and her brother, Brendan and her mother, Tony. The Lee family has agreed and they have been chairing this event for, since we kicked it off. And so come down and see the Lee family. Brooke will be there with us, as well as Tony and her son, Brendan. And they have been doing a fabulous job, not just with the Hawaiian community and associations, but all of Hawaii, because Tony has a great story as well. She was diagnosed, she was diabetic for a very short period of her life. She did whatever it took to beat it. She beat it and now she wants to share that with everyone. So come on down, hold hands with all of us and hold hearts with us. And you know what, together we can beat this. And as long as you come out and take action, we shall. All right, so we are. Amen, amen. Thank you so much, Doug, for being with us. We appreciate your time with us. We love you and we love all our sponsors and volunteers and boards that we work with. So from now, Aloha from ThinkTekHawaii.