DENVER - For Henry Sun Eagle, this week's Indian Health Summit in Denver gave him a chance to share ideas and learn from other American Indian health officials from around the nation.
"I'm basically a fitness trainer for Indian diabetics," said Sun Eagle, the special programs coordinator for the Southern Ute Shining Mountain Diabetes program in Ignacio, Colo. "But I learned some new games and other exercises to use without actually making the patients think they are exercising, which is great."
More than 1,500 American Indian health officials and tribal leaders like Sun Eagle attended the three-day conference in Denver that ended Thursday that focused on, among others, obesity and diabetes treatment and prevention.
The American Diabetes Association reports that nearly 57 million Americans are prediabetic, with another 6 million more Americans who have the disease but don't know it. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for about 90 to 95 percent of diabetics, is directly linked to obesity.
American Indians are at greater risk for both, and are also twice as likely as whites to die from diabetes.
The Indian Health Service reports that more than 16 percent of the nearly 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives ages 20 and older served by the agency were diagnosed with diabetes.
"Diabetes is a huge challenge for this population," new IHS director Yvette Roubideaux said. "But it is a growing problem in the United States. We're fighting an uphill battle, but we have to fight in the entire country."
Roubideaux, a Rosebud Sioux and the first American Indian woman to be nominated director of the IHS, said experiences like Sun Eagle's were the focus of the summit at downtown Denver's Convention Center.
"I think people are excited about this and interested about the ways to improve Indian health," she said, adding that the nearly 13 percent increase in IHS funding approved by President Barack Obama is a start to improving health care in Indian Country. "We really need more resources in the Indian Health Service to effectively meet our mission, but also, just getting more resources isn't going to solve all our problems."
The IHS was appropriated nearly $3.6 billion this year, about half of what it needs, the agency said.
Roubideaux said Indian Country could be used as a model for the rest of the nation on how to combat these tough health issues not only affecting American Indians, but the entire nation.
Dr. David Marrero, a professor at Indiana University School of Medicine and director of the Diabetes Translational Research Center, agreed but said tribes should be concentrating on making small adjustments.
"It doesn't take extraordinary lifestyle transformations to add health benefits," he said. "You can add small changes and small weight loss to get there and you don't have to have a massive, funded, big, rich entity to do this."