June 19, 2007
‘Children’s Congress’ Calls Attention to Diabetes

As they do every year, advocates for more federal spending to research and cure both forms of diabetes—type 1, formerly known as “juvenile diabetes” and type 2, formerly known as “adult onset diabetes”—brought a Children’s Congress made up of young diabetes patients to Capitol Hill this week, for a conference and congressional testimony sponsored largely by Novo Nordisk, manufacturer of insulin products and delivery devices such as the insulin pen. In a fact sheet on diabetes mellitus, Novo Nordisk pointed out that diabetes is a chronic disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy. People who have diabetes have high levels of sugar in their blood, and untreated diabetes can lead to health complications, including heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, high blood pressure, blindness, nerve problems, and amputations. Currently, an estimated 20.8 million people, or 7 percent of the population, have diabetes in the United States, according to the fact sheet, and 6.2 million of them remain undiagnosed and are not being treated. Nearly two-thirds of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are not successfully managing the condition, exceeding the recommended sugar levels and putting themselves at risk for complications. “The incidence of diabetes is growing rapidly among children: more than 13,000 young people are diagnosed with type 1 each year, “the fact sheet points out, “and health care providers are finding more and more children with type 2 diabetes—a disease usually diagnosed in adults aged 40 years or older.” Treatments for type 1 diabetes, in which the pancreas does not make insulin and insulin shots are required to use glucose from meals, include rapid-acting or “bolus” insulin taken after eating and long-acting or “basal” insulin that provides a steady amount of insulin for up to 24 hours. Persons with type 2 diabetes are usually treated with medication and urged to adopt a healthful eating and exercise program, but most will eventually require insulin. More information about both types of diabetes is available at the American Diabetes Association website, www.diabetes.org.