 I want to thank each of you for being here today, a very special day, a very special month as we raise the awareness for diabetes, of course, in South Carolina. I'm happy to have with me the director of our South Carolina Department of Health and Environment. Simon, thank you so much. I want to thank Mr. Traxler for being with us. And of course, my colleagues on the council, Councilwoman Herbert and Councilwoman Dr. Brussels. Thank you for being here today. This is special because diabetes in South Carolina, once upon a time, you referred to diabetes as sugar. Now, one of the things I want to say, I want to say very emphatically, sugar ain't sweet. And if you know the numbers, you know the statistics for diabetes in South Carolina is very troubling. As you know, I am a diabetic. And of course, I'm a type 2 diabetic. And I have DHEC with me today. And they're going to talk about some of these statistics. And as I close this conference today, I want to say something very personal about diabetes, the effects of diabetes, and how impactful it has been in the state of South Carolina. Particularly at 29203, it has hit tremendously. And of course, these two persons from DHEC will bring us and say to us some of the glaring statistics that are already, that's already there. So please, Ed, if you would come and say a word shortly after that, Ms. Traxler will come and I will close this press conference. It's great to be here. Thank you all for coming. And especially Councilman McDowell, Councilwoman Herbert, Councilwoman Bussells, thank you very much for allowing us to do this, for highlighting this very important topic that is of such great importance to many people in the city of Columbia and in Richland County. This is American Diabetes Month, so it's a perfect time to highlight information about diabetes. Because those who have diabetes, or as you obviously know, diabetes is a tough disease. It's challenging. Now, the good news is there's hope. There's good treatment today for diabetes. It's not like 50 years ago when we called this sugar. Now we can help people live with their diabetes and overcome their diabetes. And although it never goes away, great treatment, as I said, is available so people can live long, full lives, even though they have diabetes. So that's the good news. But even better is when we can prevent it. So at DHAC, our focus is on providing access to care and services, both to prevent diabetes and to help those who have it. Information so that people can make good choices about things like diet and exercise that help prevent diabetes and also help those who have it. And finally, resources, because even if you have the best information in the world, if you don't have the resources to use that information, it doesn't matter. So let me talk to you briefly in some ways that we're working with many partners across the city in the county to do this. Because I can tell you, DHAC does not do this by ourselves, without our community partners, without the providers who support us, without folks like all of you. This doesn't work. So thank you for that. So we're very focused on encouraging people to have a healthy lifestyle. We're the health department, that's what we do, right? But we're very focused on healthy lifestyle. So that means eating lots of good fruits and vegetables, making healthy choices, you know, keeping the amount of added sugar down in your diet, keeping the fat down. And also, not using tobacco if you are using quitting and if you aren't using, never starting. Because it turns out tobacco use actually both can make diabetes more likely to come and makes it worse if you have it. So our division of diabetes and heart disease management is working with numerous providers across the county. And in fact, 29203, the zip code where we know there's so much problem, not just with diabetes, but also with some of the effects of diabetes, especially including heart disease and amputations, especially in the lower limbs, which are just devastating for people once they have them. Our community systems teams are providing information through, for example, a women and children program. So that new moms can both work to prevent diabetes for themselves, but also can raise their children on a diet that helps prevent diabetes. Because one of the number one causes of diabetes is childhood obesity. If we can help children have a good diet up front, we can prevent problems the rest of their lives. So that's really important. You may know that our headquarters is right down the street, 2100 Bull Street, the old state hospital building. In front of that building, although they're a little dormant now because of the weather, we have two community gardens, two demonstration gardens. And we're encouraging folks to put community gardens all across our state, providing seeds through our program. We can help them with tools, with training, so that people can grow their own fruits and vegetables. Because it's one thing to give people fruits and vegetables for a season. It's another thing to help them grow fruits and vegetables for themselves for a lifetime. So that's really what we're focused on. Right here in the Midlands, we're focused on access to healthy food, as I said, both in terms of growing your own, but also increasing the number of places that sell healthy food. You know, too many parts of our community don't have access to a grocery store. They may have a dollar store and nothing against dollar stores, but those don't often have healthy food choices. So we're working both to get more healthy food choices in the dollar stores, hopefully working to get more grocery stores, farmers markets, those kinds of things that people can use to have healthy choices. We're also working on providing childcare and transportation to appointments so people can get the care that they need to determine do they have pre-diabetes so they can take steps to prevent it from becoming diabetes. And if they do have diabetes, they can get the treatment they need so they don't get the things like heart disease and eye disease and amputations that can come with it. We're also partnering with the Diabetes Action Council. You are out here on Sumter Street where the pilot bus station is. You don't have to stay there very long and you'll see the diabetes bus go by. We have wrapped the common bus, again, working with the Diabetes Council, Diabetes Action Council. And that bus has diabetes prevention messages, how to manage diabetes, and also points of contact so you can reach out and get more information and get support. Because that bus goes all over the city and is a great traveling messenger. As I said, we're also focused on helping people not use tobacco because that helps their diabetes. So we sponsor the South Carolina Quit Line which offers free counseling and free resources to help people quit whether that's smoking cigarettes or other forms of tobacco or vaping because even the nicotine vaping can cause problems. So if you call 1-800-QUIT-NOW-Q-U-I-T-N-O-W, you can access all those resources and again, it's free, you don't need insurance, you just have to be in South Carolina and you can use that. So finally, in conclusion, we believe that connecting individuals with local organizations across our city and county and with providers who are right here can help reduce the impact of diabetes on our community both by prevention, most important, and also by helping those who have diabetes to live with it well because when our citizens live well, that is our ultimate goal. With that, Councilman, thank you very much and I will give the floor to our public health director, Dr. Dressel. Good afternoon and I want to thank Councilman McDowell, all of the Columbia City Council, particularly those here today and all of the city leaders and community partners that are here today for us for holding this event and shining the light on the impact that diabetes does have not only in our state but around the country. Diabetes is a serious life-threatening disease that affects more than 37 million Americans. This includes more than half a million South Carolinians and that's South Carolina adults, more than 500,000 who have been diagnosed with diabetes. And if you don't have a fact sheet, please get one from our PIO, Laura, in the back. It gives a lot of this information. There's another 120,000 South Carolinians that are estimated to have diabetes but haven't been officially diagnosed. They don't know they haven't. And there's probably another 1.4 million South Carolinians, so almost a quarter of our population that have pre-diabetes. In 2020, there were 1,943 South Carolinians who unfortunately lost their lives from diabetes, making it the eighth leading cause of death in our state. A person is diagnosed with diabetes when their body either doesn't make enough insulin or it doesn't use the insulin that it does have as well as it should to help the body regulate the amount of sugar. So sugar still isn't played, but amount of sugar in the person's bloodstream. Insulin is that hormone that regulates how much sugar is in the blood, that blood sugar level. By helping the body either use or store the sugar called glucose that it gets from the foods we eat. Over time, the body's inability to either make or properly use insulin can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease, vision loss or kidney disease. And diabetes can ultimately, as I noted, result in death. There are three main types of diabetes, type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is thought to be caused by an autoimmune reaction, meaning the body somehow accidentally attacks itself by mistake, usually the cells that make the insulin, and so your body then stops making insulin. It can use insulin properly still, it just doesn't make it. Approximately 5 to 10% of diabetics have type 1 diabetes. Symptoms often develop very quickly. It's usually diagnosed in children or teens or young adults. And people with type 1 diabetes have to take insulin every day in order to survive. Again, their body can use it correctly, but they just can't make it. With type 2 diabetes, the body makes insulin, but then it can't use that insulin well, and therefore it can't keep your blood sugar at normal levels. And this makes up about 90 to 95% of diabetics. Type 2 diabetes develops over many years and usually is diagnosed in adults, though unfortunately we are seeing it develop more in teens and children and young adults. Gestational diabetes develops specifically in pregnant women who have never had diabetes before their pregnancy. And people with gestational diabetes, their babies are at higher risk for health problems and complications. Gestational diabetes often goes away after the baby is born, but it does increase that woman's chances for type 2 diabetes later in life. The baby is also more likely to have obesity as a child or a teen, and to develop type 2 diabetes later in their life. There's also this condition I mentioned called pre-diabetes, which is where a blood person's blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but they're not quite high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. But having pre-diabetes diagnosed does raise your risk for type 2 diabetes and for heart disease and stroke. There's no cure for diabetes, although many people can learn to very well manage their diabetes by following the treatments and recommendations of their doctors. Of course, however, you can't properly treat your diabetes if you don't know you have it. So that's why so much of our messaging is focused on not only those lifestyle changes that can help you reduce your risk of developing diabetes, but also making sure that people get tested to know if they have diabetes or pre-diabetes. As I noted earlier, our data suggests that there are 120,000 South Carolinians who have diabetes right this moment, but do not know that they have it. Certain people are at higher risk for developing diabetes or pre-diabetes, including people who are overweight, who are 45 years or older, have a parent, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes, are physically active less than 3 days per week, and if they ever had gestational diabetes or gave birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds at birth. So we encourage anyone, if you fall into one of these categories, these higher risk categories, or anybody that has any concern about their risk for diabetes to talk to their medical provider. Diabetes and pre-diabetes can be diagnosed through a simple blood test ordered by your doctor's office, your provider's office, and performed by a lab. And while it can be more difficult to prevent type 1 diabetes and gestational diabetes, there are several key things we can all do to reduce our risk of getting pre-diabetes and then type 2 diabetes, again, which is the most common by far. Those include living an active lifestyle. In general, most of us healthy adults should aim for about 30 minutes or more of physical activity, at least 5 days a week, eating healthy foods and maintaining a healthy weight, quitting the use of tobacco products, managing stress, and maintaining a safe and healthy blood pressure. So our approach to publicly messaging the impact of diabetes on South Carolinians really is too pronged, as Dr. Simmer noted. It's that prevention, but then also the diagnosis by people getting tested to know if they have it. By sharing with our friends and family these risk factors for diabetes and how to get tested, we can help our state combat this deadly disease and help our fellow South Carolinians live healthy lives. We encourage anyone with questions again about their diabetes status. You know, do not wait. Visit your healthcare provider. Talk about your concerns. Ask if you should be tested. You can also get more information from our DHEC webpage or the CDC webpage, or other trusted partners such as the American Diabetes Association. I want to again thank the City of Columbia for holding this important event, which coincides with November of this year being the National Diabetes Month. The more we talk about diabetes and its prevalence in our state, you know, our city, our county, our country, the more we can hopefully encourage each other to evaluate our risk factors, get tested, and follow a healthy lifestyle of prevention. Thank you. Dr. Chancellor, thank you very much. Dr. Simmer, thank you very much for imparting upon us the real facts about diabetes. From a personal note, when you talk about diabetes, you always want to put a face on diabetes, of course. One out of six African Americans in South Carolina is affected by diabetes. Amputation in certain parts of our state is extremely high. Why am I so interested in health issues in this city of ours, particularly diabetes? I'm a diabetic. I am a 10-year amputee. Some will ask me sometimes, you don't look like you are an amputee. Well, trust me, I am. I say all of that to say it is extremely important. The facts that were just given, it helps and allows folk who find themselves in situations where perhaps a kidney is being destroyed by diabetes or eyesight is being destroyed. Make sure, make sure this is the most important issue for our city, I think. If it's health-related, a healthy city is a safe city, and a safe city is a healthy city.