Tired after a few hours of cooking for his food business, Luis Mauricio, 43, decides to take a nap to regain strength;He says that he gets tired very easily and that he already feels old.

“When my sugar goes up, my head begins to hurt;And there I know that I have to take medicine. ”

His real problem, he says, is that he does not like doctors, “What are I going for?They make me feel worse telling me what I should not do, and telling me that I am bad.Better nothing more to take care of myself and now;It is even more practical, ”he said.

This is a characteristic gesture of those who suffer from a chronic disease, because before the loss of health they tend to depress, and deny their state.

Álvaro Elías Pastrana, a specialist in the subject and member of the Mexican Association of Diabetes Ciudad Juárez, explained that when a person finds out that he is diabetic, he faces a radical change in his life.

"They deny it, they act as if they had nothing but only aggravate the problem for not attending it to time," he said.

That is why it is highly recommended that these people be treated interdisciplinary, so that they assimilate their situation and can be addressed in a timely manner;thus avoiding complications derived from the same disease.

“We cannot tell a lady to eat this or that thing, or to exercise.It is not easy for her to listen to that or practice it.That is why you have to teach him how and provide emotional support, ”said Jesús Arturo Sánchez Alvarado, a psychologist at the State Government Pension Service.

Based on this, the Health Education Center works in this place, which has the purpose of providing interdisciplinary care to chronic-degenerative patients where the participation of the psychological area is included and that is directed specifically for the population thatThe attention of civil pensions is used.

The first activity of the center was the start of the Chronic Likes Clinic, which aims to improve the control of diseases of this type, especially diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemias and obesity.

“These diseases have always been treated separately and there was control of this, now it is a more direct intervention;Now nothing else is aware of his illness, but we explain issues about self -control, food and healthy behavior, ”he said.

For these functions, strategies such as the formation of groups of chronic patients and their families will be used to carry out educational activities, reflection and self -analysis.

About three weeks after this project has started, more than 50 people who come once a week to attend to health and disease, meaning of suffering from diabetes, hypertension, obesity and workshop of anthropometry, dyslipidemia,and heart disease and healthy eating in metabolic syndrome.

These talks will last 12 weeks, and will be developed within the Civil Pension Building, located in Paseo Triunfo de la República #4776 of the El Colegio neighborhood.

This is not very different from what the members of the Red Cross Diabetics are already doing, who have formed a kind of club that they attend once every week with the intention of sharing knowledge about their illness, and actions that theThey have helped feel better.(Karen Cano/El Diario)