Turkey Tips, Massage, and a Blood Test: St. Anthony's Celebrates Diabetes Day in New Gr...( Historic nonprofit offers help to SF ...),Health

Historic nonprofit offers help to SF neighborhood with highest citywide rate of diabetes hospitalizations

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On World Diabetes Day, St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic will be offering free blood sugar check ups, as well as diabetic foot and eye exams, medication review, tips on holiday diabetes control and free massages to San Francisco's poor and homeless. St. Anthony's effort to address the staggering rate of diabetes in San Francisco's Tenderloin district comes at a time when nearly 24 million Americans, 8 percent of the population, are reported to have Type II diabetes. Diabetes can also lead to kidney failure, blindness and heart disease.

Diabetes in the Tenderloin

The Tenderloin district has the highest citywide rate of ambulatory hospitalizations due to diabetes, according to a 2007 Building a Healthier San Francisco's Community Health Assessment, as well as the city's highest concentration of people living below the poverty line. The prevalence of Type II diabetes is highest among adults from low-income households.

"Tenderloin residents lack adequate access to nutritious food and safe spaces for exercise, which dramatically impacts two of the leading factors in diabetes management -- diet and exercise," noted St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic Director, Dr. Ana Valdes. "We try to address those factors through education, active medical care, and diabetes management techniques."

St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic

Established in 1956, the St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic is the first Free Medical Clinic in the United States. The new clinic, located in St. Anthony's new LEED certified service center, will open in January of 2009. It will provide over 12,000 patient visits annually, of which approximately 25% will be pediatric visits.

St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic is one of the
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