Doc: You can prevent diabetes
By RANDY GRIFFITH, THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT September 06, 2003

The epidemic of diabetes that has swept the nation is hitting Pennsylvania especially hard, but there is reason for optimism for its victims.

That’s the message from a national authority on the disease yesterday during “Diabetes: Help and Hope in 2003” in University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Living/Learning Center.
Diabetes’ upswing has mirrored the epidemic of obesity in America, Carl J. Caspersen of National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said during his keynote address.

While not enough scientific evidence is in to say that obesity triggers diabetes, Caspersen said he believes the connection is not far off. The best way to prevent and treat Type 2 diabetes, he said, is through behavior modification: Improved diet and exercise.

“If you are willing to exert the effort, you will get the benefit,” he told about 100 health care professionals, diabetes patients and parents of children with diabetes.
Caspersen said the incidence of Type 2 diabetes has doubled since 1980, when eating trends shifted to high-fat, high-carbohydrate diets.

Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugars and starches into energy, American Diabetes Association Web site says.
Most sufferers have Type 2 diabetes, which results from insulin resistance in the body combined with reduced output of insulin by the pancreas. Type 2 patients usually don’t have to take insulin injections.

In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops producing insulin altogether and patients’ lives become dependent on insulin shots.

Patients with diabetes have increased risk of vision and kidney problems, and are more likely to have hampered circulation leading to amputations or disability, Caspersen said yesterday.
A native of Pittsburgh and graduate of Grove City College, Caspersen is associate director of the Science Division of Diabetes Translation at the CDC.

He said it is still not clear why Western Pennsylvania’s diabetes rates are as much as 50 percent above the national average.

“Is that something fluky about the age composition or is it some other factor coming in?” he said.
While obesity, inactive lifestyle, poor diet, age and a family history of diabetes all increase diabetes risk, Caspersen said more research needs to be done to identify the causes.

He praised the $15 million grant that U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, secured for research projects at Children’s Hospital and UPMC Diabetes Research Institute, both in Pittsburgh.
Researchers are trying to find what triggers the disease.

“We know we have to move up the causal path,” Caspersen said.
Murtha also addressed the seminar, outlining his increased focus on diabetes when providing research money through the Department of Defense.

Part of that funding will bring diabetes outreach and education into rural areas of the state through Harvard Medical School’s Joslin Diabetes Center of Boston.

“What we’re seeing is that the number of people with diabetes is increasing, especially in the rural areas where people are not getting the nutritional information, treatment and monitoring they need,” Murtha said in a release announcing the program.

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