Dr. Nuzhat Chalisa
Phone: 847-372-4142 cell
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.kisatdiabetes.org
Show Date:
Friday March 27th at 11am EDT(Doug)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Close Up Radio (631) 850-3314
Close Up Radio Spotlights Endocrinologist Dr. Nuzhat Chalisa, Founder of Kisat Diabetes Organization
Naperville, IL – One in three people are expected to have diabetes by the year 2050. The good news is that if you do take care of yourself, you can actually prevent diabetes or delay it indefinitely, even with a family history.
Dr. Nuzhat Chalisa has been practicing medicine in Chicago, IL, for the past 20 years as a specialist in the field of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. Today, she is the president and founder of Kisat Diabetes Organization, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention of diabetes and its complications through early screening and education.
“We are dedicated to raising awareness,” says Dr. Chalisa. "The endocrinologist is the specialist people trust, so we have decided to give our best.”
Dr. Chalisa was inspired to pursue medicine at a very young age after watching many of my family members suffer from diabetes. She formed Kisat Diabetes four years ago in memory of her father who passed away of complications from diabetes.
“Unfortunately, because people don't get symptoms in the early stages of the disease, many don't realize complications are developing in the background,” says Dr. Chalisa.
Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the way the body processes blood sugar. Under normal circumstances, digested food is converted into glucose, which enters your circulation where it’s carried to the tissues to be used as energy. But for the glucose to enter your tissues, you need insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas. When you have Type-2 Diabetes, however, your pancreas makes insulin, but it's not good quality and so the glucose cannot enter the tissue. If this process continues, the pancreas will work harder and harder to compensate until eventually it gives up.
According to Dr. Chalisa, diabetes does not have to be a life sentence.
“Insulin is considered by most to be a punishment; if you don't take care of yourself, you'll go on insulin, but we don't treat diabetes that way. We don't wait until the end, because by then you will have already developed complications. We treat diabetes very aggressively. If you sit with the patient and actually explain it them, 99% of the time we’re able to convince them to do what they need to do.”
Dr. Chalisa is also the author of the forthcoming Diabetes Beyond Numbers, a comprehensive examination of managing diabetes and its complications.
“People have so many questions about diabetes. They're confused about what to do when you have high blood sugar. They're confused about their medications. Even the most educated patients still have misconceptions about the disease,” says Dr. Chalisa. “That’s why I decided to write this book. It’s everything you need to know about diabetes as a patient with no complex medical jargon.”
Close Up Radio will feature Dr. Nuzhat Chalisa in an interview with Doug Llewelyn on March 27th at 11am EDT.
Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio. If you have any questions for our guest, please call (347) 996-3389.
For more information, visit www.kisatdiabetes.org
Notes:
Kisat: Throughout the year we do many small projects in communities. We offer screening and counseling on an individual basis; if somebody needs help, we can answer their questions.
The Kisat Organization plans to expand internationally.
2020 Annual 5k Walk/Run: We do some games for adults as well as for children to create awareness in children about diabetes. It’s family friendly. We try to encourage people to come with their families. We also encourage people to come with their parents so they can participate in other activities.
Diabetes Beyond Numbers: Dr. Chalisa’s plan is to finish it the book and launch the book at the 5K
Complications: Diabetes narrows your arteries so diabetes is cardiovascular disease equivalent, which means if you have diabetes, it's as if you'd have had a heart attack. That's why diabetics are so prone to getting heart disease. It's all related. The same thing happens in your kidneys. It’s also why people get neuropathy in the feet: the blood supply to the nerves gets damaged. It goes really fast and any infection can turn into gangrene within a period of days.
Questions:
- What is Kisat Diabetes? What do you do?
- This is so important because we all have people we love who have diabetes and don’t seem to be taking it very seriously. Your organization is dedicated to raising awareness.
- Were you inspired by your father to pursue medicine too?
- I wish it could be framed more like an allergy. Why is it when you know you are allergic to something, you know to avoid it, but if you are a diabetic, you are still eating too much sugar.
- Now what are the conversations that you're having with patients and even people in the community that have convinced them to make an adjustment? Make a change.
- For people in the audience who really need an education, what is a diabetes? And we have mostly been discussing type two, correct? How do you develop it?
- What happens to a person that is not producing insulin but continues to consume sugars?
- What are the complications? What do people once they've crossed over that threshold?
- For some people the diabetes doesn't become real until their injecting insulin. The idea that having a good one to one talk and explaining them and educating them really helps.
- Let's talk more about the organization. When did you start it and what have you seen? What have you been able to accomplish?
- It's so important to have organizations like this and events like this because it builds that sense of community. I think a lot of diabetics are isolated by their disease. They don’t know how beneficial it would be for him to just talk to someone who has the exact same diseases.
- I understand you have a new book coming out entitled Diabetes Beyond Numbers.