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Alumna recognized by CDC for anti-diabetes efforts

 

Diabetes: A Danger Recognized

In a 2016 report published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the increase of diabetes occurrence was highlighted and analyzed, which resulted in a demand for public awareness of diabetes and prevention.

The 2016 CDC report showed that during a 20 year period, the rate of diabetes occurrence in the United States has nearly doubled from 5.5 percent in 1994 to 9.3 percent in 2012, and Texas has a rate of occurrence of 11.2 percent. Today more than 29 million American adults have diabetes, and another 86 million have prediabetes, according to the same 2016 CDC report.

Anti-Diabetes Efforts and CDC Recognition

Laila Tubaila, a TWU alumna from Houston, realized the seriousness of this issue and decided to do something about it herself. In order to help combat and raise awareness of diabetes in her community, Tubaila helped create an interactive seven-week program, named “Perfect Lifestyle,” which focuses on teaching diabetes preventive techniques and helping those who have diabetes to work toward the reversal of this chronic disease through maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

The Perfect Lifestyle program aims to accomplish this by teaching its patients how to cook healthy meals, understand diabetes at a deeper level and develop a tailored exercise regimen that hopefully results in the creation of an effective, long-term strategy against diabetes.

Tubaila’s successful efforts eventually resulted in Perfect Lifestyle being recognized by the CDC as one of the few national diabetes prevention programs registered by the CDC in Houston.

The start of it all

In an interview with Christy Savage, a TWU staff reporter, Tubaila gave credit to her time at TWU and her online degree in Health Studies, which she believes has given her the confidence to make the leap and step out on her own. “I had great professors who taught me step-by-step how to implement, plan, assess and evaluate health programs,” Tubaila said.

 Aside from her time at TWU, Tubaila also gives credit to La Mancion Health and Wellness Clinic in Houston, which is where Perfect Fitness was born while Tubaila was part of the staff as an intern.  

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