Local Impact - Arizona

Rudy Clark, Hualapai

Hualapai Healthy Heart Project

“Today, after 20 years of insulin injections, I am able to manage my diabetes without insulin.”
- Rudy Clark

Before I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1978, I really didn’t know much about diabetes. My father, who died when I was young, had his leg amputated and I thought he just went into a coma. As I learned more about the full impact of diabetes, I realized it was probably a diabetes-related coma that caused his death. What my father went through with his health problems is one thing that motivates me to stay healthy and be available to my children and grandchildren.

I had made many healthy changes over the years but I woke up one day and decided to commit to learning all I could about diabetes and joined the Hualapai Healthy Heart Program. I took classes on heart health and managing diabetes, and learned about reading labels to pick which foods to eat. The most challenging part for me has been trying to maintain a steady weight and keeping up with a vigorous schedule for exercise. I ride bikes, walk, jog, and use the Hualapai Fitness Center and always invite others in the community to join me.

I try to let everyone know that our tribe has programs like Healthy Heart that will show them how to commit to make small changes and start eating healthy and exercising, not just to help them control their diabetes but to hopefully one day prevent it. Diabetes is something that we should attack and pay attention to as a native nation. We need to fight diabetes, using our cultural and traditional methods because we now know that we can control our blood sugar.

Diabetes in Arizona

According to 2008 CDC data, approximately 376,000 people in Arizona – 7.9% of the state’s population – had diagnosed diabetes, and many of them suffer from serious diabetes related complications or conditions. In addition to the human toll diabetes places on people in Arizona, the financial burden diabetes places on the state’s health system is staggering – in 2007, the direct and indirect cost of diabetes in Arizona was approximately $3.46 billion.

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