American Diabetes Association

One step at a time, participants in America's Walk for Diabetes walk from Lemon Hill in Fairmount Park to the Philadelphia Zoo and back. The fund-raising walk yesterday raised money for the American Diabetes Association to research the disease and work on a cure.

They'll be walking this weekend, thousands of volunteers who hope to speed the progress Americans have made against two deadly diseases: heart disease and diabetes. A diabetic, Mary Jo Garner, will lead a 50-member team from the Newtown Fitness and Racquet Club along an eight-mile course through Tyler State Park on Sunday. About 2,000 people in four Philadelphia-area parks will join them in the fourth annual Walktoberfest to aid the American Diabetes Association. In neighboring Core Creek Park, hundreds will trek five miles Saturday in the third annual American Heart Walk benefiting the American Heart Association.

Glancing at Charlotte, a 250-pound Swedish pot-bellied pig, "Hammlet" mused: "To kiss or not to kiss, that is the question. " It wasn't quite Shakespeare. But Hammlet, a.k.a. Dr. Bruce Stark, wasn't dressed in a black suit, frilly collar and pig snout to pay homage to the Bard. He was out to promote diabetes awareness. "This is to educate the public that diabetes is a dangerous disease," Stark said at Brandywine Picnic Park at yesterday's start to the inaugural KISS-A-PIG fund drive.

Philadelphia has agreed to pay $206,000 and implement new police lockup procedures to settle a class-action lawsuit by detainees with diabetes who became seriously ill after being denied medical care. The proposed settlement, filed yesterday in federal court in Philadelphia, would end a lawsuit that began three years ago with the complaint of a Northeast Philadelphia cabaret owner and expanded into a class-action joined by the American Diabetes Association. Details of the proposed settlement will be mailed to about 3,000 potential class members and published in newspapers.

William R. Kirtley, 96, a medical-research pioneer who helped develop drugs after World War II that greatly improved the lives of diabetics, died last Sunday at a hospital near his home in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Dr. Kirtley was part of a research team at Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis that conducted groundbreaking research on diabetes drugs after the war. "My dad was proud of his work and what it meant for the lives of people with diabetes," his...

Harry Gottlieb, 71, medical director of Allegheny University Hospitals/MCP and an authority on the treatment of diabetes, died Sunday of a stroke at the hospital. He resided in Lafayette Hill. Dr. Gottlieb arrived at Women's Medical College in 1955 as the assistant clinical instructor in medicine. He wound up spending the rest of his career there. In 1987, he was elected chairman of the medical board, which establishes hospital policy and oversees its implementation. He was named medical director in 1990 and director of graduate education in 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service is embarking on another social-awareness program, using stamps to promote early detection of diabetes. A 34-cent commemorative will be issued next Friday at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Founded in 1898, the center is dedicated to the research and education of diabetes and special care for patients. The stamp's design depicts a microscope and a test tube containing blood and the words, "Know More About Diabetes. " The Postal Service is issuing the stamp to initiate a yearlong campaign of diabetes awareness.

IT IS VERY unfortunate that Philadelphia has decided to reduce the number of school nurses. All children benefit from the expertise provided by the school nurse. However, for the child with diabetes, a number of other caregivers can be trained to administer insulin and to recognize and treat low blood sugar. Parents of newly diagnosed children with diabetes quickly learn to care for their child. They also train others, such as family members and babysitters, to provide care. And, of course, older children can usually administer their own insulin.

A quarter of nursing home residents have diabetes, but doctors are only now recognizing that they may need different medical treatment than younger people with the disease. Elbert Huang, a University of Chicago primary care doctor who conducts diabetes research, bemoans the fact that clinical trials rarely include elderly diabetics even though nearly half of people with diabetes are over 65. Three recent, large trials of measures to keep tight control of blood sugar did include older people but yielded either detrimental results or no benefit.

Hospitalizations for short-term complications associated with diabetes are down in Pennsylvania, and a new state report concludes that preventive efforts by HMOs may be partly responsible. The report, to be released today by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, shows that the rate of hospitalization for complications of diabetes resulting from controllable blood-sugar problems has fallen 17 percent, from 9.9 hospital admissions per 10,000 residents in 1995 to 8.2 per 10,000 last year.

ON THE NIGHT of Nov. 20, 2010, Dan Fried, a diabetic since childhood, experienced two miracles and one travesty. The first act of God occurred when, overcome by diabetic shock while driving home from the Jersey Shore, Fried somehow knew to pull onto the shoulder of Route 72 in Burlington County. But he has no memory of doing so. Nor does he remember the travesty that unfolded as he sat, head slumped, eyelids drooping, while New Jersey state troopers asked him what was up. Police records, legal documents and police audio and video confirm that the troopers ordered Fried out of his truck and that he ended up beaten and handcuffed on the ground, his wrist broken.

A quarter of nursing home residents have diabetes, but doctors are only now recognizing that they may need different medical treatment than younger people with the disease. Elbert Huang, a University of Chicago primary care doctor who conducts diabetes research, bemoans the fact that clinical trials rarely include elderly diabetics even though nearly half of people with diabetes are over 65. Three recent, large trials of measures to keep tight control of blood sugar did include older people but yielded either detrimental results or no benefit.

What used to be called "adult-onset diabetes" — a leading cause of kidney failure, limb amputations, blindness, heart disease, and stroke among adults — is now a growing problem for American children, too. This health challenge, and how to deal with it, will be one of the hottest topics at this weekend's American Diabetes Association conference. An expected 16,000 health professionals, researchers, advocates, and vendors from around the world are gathering at the Convention Center to share the latest in diabetes research.

The number of diabetics in America is growing. The number of unemployed pharmaceutical workers seems to be doing the same. That combination is bad, unless you are Novo Nordisk. A relatively small Danish-based drug company with a U.S. home in Princeton, Novo Nordisk is in a sweet spot in the pharmaceutical landscape because the core of its business is diabetes. With 40 straight quarters of double-digit growth, the company said Friday it plans a 15 percent increase to its U.S. workforce, meaning about 615 more jobs, through the end of this year.

IT IS VERY unfortunate that Philadelphia has decided to reduce the number of school nurses. All children benefit from the expertise provided by the school nurse. However, for the child with diabetes, a number of other caregivers can be trained to administer insulin and to recognize and treat low blood sugar. Parents of newly diagnosed children with diabetes quickly learn to care for their child. They also train others, such as family members and babysitters, to provide care. And, of course, older children can usually administer their own insulin.

Sending children off to school and letting someone else take responsibility for them is never easy. It's especially hard when a child has a condition, such as diabetes, that requires medication and other care during the day. Parents should feel confident that schools can provide that care, and, indeed, federal law requires them to. But how? More school nurses would benefit all children, including those with chronic conditions. Unfortunately, though, nurses haven't been available in every Pennsylvania school for decades; in some, they never were.

By Karen Stabiner Paula Deen came out last week. The cookbook author and television personality, known for her enthusiasm for high-fat and fried foods, has been a closet diabetic for three years. And for the moment, she's the chef we love to hate, having seduced us with unhealthful recipes on the one hand while she checked her blood sugar with the other. But she's also a distraction, and the media storm surrounding the news of her illness is exactly the sort of publicity bonanza the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk must have dreamed of when it hired Deen to be the spokeswoman for its new marketing campaign.

A cold, hypocritical media manipulator? Or a suffering Southern lady in distress? Which shoe fits Paula Deen ? The popular Food Network star revealed this week that she has type-2 diabetes - but not before signing a no doubt lucrative contract to promote a diabetes drug. A cynical move? Not as cynical, says University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan , as Deen's decision to keep her illness a secret for three years - during which the Georgia-born chef continued to push recipes for high-calorie down-home cooking.

William R. Kirtley, 96, a medical-research pioneer who helped develop drugs after World War II that greatly improved the lives of diabetics, died last Sunday at a hospital near his home in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Dr. Kirtley was part of a research team at Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis that conducted groundbreaking research on diabetes drugs after the war. "My dad was proud of his work and what it meant for the lives of people with diabetes," his...

BERNARDET Cash was diagnosed with diabetes 14 months ago, which shook the 48-year-old from West Philly to the core. "I was scared," she says. "I was so much into denial - and depressed for a little while - but then I said, 'This is part of life and you have to deal with it.' "I'm a strong woman," Cash says. "You cry it out a little bit, then you get over it. " She had plenty of help. The American Diabetes Association advises patients that because of the disease's many intricacies, they'll need a team of health-care specialists to back them up. Cash has a village: Dr. Charles Gartland Dr. Gartland gave Cash a blood test to screen for diabetes as part of her annual exam last fall.