To recognize the severity of the diabetes epidemic that is gripping not just the U.S., but the entire globe, all one has to do is look at the numbers.

According to recent statistics presented by local registered nurse Melody Wallace, 382 million people of the world’s population has some form of diabetes, accounting for 8.3 percent, or 1 out of every 12, people. Every seven seconds, someone dies due to complications surrounding the condition, Wallace added.

But perhaps the scariest figure of all is that one out of two people with the condition don’t even know they have it, she said.

In the U.S., diabetic rates have soared along with the rise of obesity, and has become an increasingly difficult problem for physicians to rectify, Wallace said.

“This has become a major health problem in the U.S.,” she said. “It’s a very large financial drain.”

Wallace, presented these figures during her talk at the Dowagiac Rotary club Thursday afternoon, entitled “Faith Community Nursing and Diabetes.” A member of the Rotary club who serves as the faith community nurse with Dowagiac Seventh-day Adventist Church, Wallace discussed the diabetes epidemic and how she is working to help locals fight or prevent the disease through her seminars with the local church.

The Rotarian has severed as a faith community nurse with Seventh-day Adventist for the last several years. In her role, she combines traditional medical advice with religion, serving as a personal counselor and educator for members of her church and wider community.

The concept of faith community nursing was introduced in 1989 by Rev. Granger Westberg, a Lutheran clergyman and medical instructor who felt there was something lacking between medicine and the church, and that nurses could fill that gap, Wallace said.

“It has become international in its scope, and goes across all religious faiths,” she said.

Since starting at the Dowagiac church, Wallace has presented many health/faith seminars, including several focused on diabetes. Her course focuses on teaching people how to adjust their lifestyle to combat the effects of diabetes, as well on how to overcome bad habits that prevent people from making these necessary changes.

“I’m convinced that faith based nursing can help people make lifestyle changes, even with difficult diseases like diabetes,” Wallace said.