Blood Sugar

Most children attack summer camp with the unrestrained energy of 10 Olympic athletes, but for the children enrolled in a special YMCA diabetic program in West Philadelphia, moderation best describes their camp experience. "Camp is a lot of fun," said Ashley O'Neill, a talkative 11-year-old diagnosed with diabetes a year ago. "We get to go swimming, and I love swimming. We also play basketball and run track, but if our blood sugar is too high, we can't do anything. We have to rest.

The fight against diabetes is getting a $150 million shot in the arm: a major nationwide study aimed at prevention among people at risk for the disease. Researchers plan to recruit 4,000 people who have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but do not yet have diabetes. The study will follow the participants for five years to test three approaches to preventing Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 percent to 95 percent of all diabetes cases and affects about 15 million Americans.

HOUSTON SELENA MURDER TRIAL BEGINS TODAY Court workers braced for crowds of reporters and spectators for today's opening of the trial of a woman accused of killing tejano singer Selena. "What I'm hearing from the Spanish media is this is their O.J.," said Janet Warner, one of the Harris County courthouse coordinators. "They're treating this like the O.J. trial. " Unlike O.J. Simpson's trial in Los Angeles, however, fans of Selena - the popular Tejano-style singer - won't get gavel-to-gavel television coverage of Yolanda Saldivar's trial.

November has been "Diabetes Month," but for the 200,000 diabetics who live in the Delaware Valley, it is an every-month, everyday condition. For these people, blood sugar levels are often the first thing they think of upon waking, and the last thing on their minds before they fall asleep. They may never take a break from this condition, but they must have confidence in themselves. I tell my clients that living "well" with diabetes can be accomplished through knowledge, self-management and focus.

Jamie Dillinger is worried that some women, at about age 50, may be in for a surprise. Diabetes. Women who had diabetes during pregnancy - called gestational diabetes - have a 50 percent chance of having it when they hit midlife, said Dillinger, diabetes educator at Mercy Haverford Hospital in Havertown. She wants them to know about it. "My concern is the woman who had it prior to 1980," said Dillinger. These women, she said, might not have known that they had diabetes during their pregnancies.

It looked like just another routine postgame scene: a bunch of Phillies on the mound shaking hands, other players heading for the dugout, fans streaming out of the ballpark. And then, suddenly, at 3:55 p.m. yesterday, everything changed. Phillies rightfielder Tom Marsh collapsed on the pitcher's mound. And for a few anxious moments, it didn't matter much that the Phillies just had beaten the Orioles, 8-6, or that Ben Rivera had gone six innings, or that Heathcliff Slocumb had given up five runs.

As it turns out, grazing wasn't just another faddish way to munch through the self-absorbed '80s. Increasingly, research shows that several small meals a day may be better than three squares. This way of eating: Lowers cholesterol. Smooths out blood-sugar peaks and valleys. May make weight loss easier. "It may have great importance for heart disease," says Dr. David Jenkins, a University of Toronto researcher who has done extensive work on how nibbling lowers cholesterol.

Diabetics who rigorously control their blood-sugar levels can dramatically cut down on the complications of their disease, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and nerves, a landmark study has found. The long-awaited study found that patients who kept their blood sugar as close to normal as possible by getting three or more insulin injections a day and testing their blood sugar at least four times a day fared far better than patients who followed a standard routine of just one or two insulin shots and one blood-sugar test.

Q: I've been a diabetic for about two years and do not fully understand my condition. Can you give me some information? A: Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism, marked by abnormal insulin secretion, elevated blood sugar levels and a host of consequences, including hastened arteriosclerosis, heart disease, retinal disorders and renal disease. Regardless of whether a diabetic needs insulin injections (Type I) or can be managed by eating prudently and possibly taking anti-diabetes pills (Type II)

When Dorothy Leese was a little girl in the 1940s, her parents would boil 10 drops of her urine in a pan on the stove every day. And when Dorothy's pals would come to visit, she'd tell them "we're doing a chemical experiment. " Because her body didn't produce insulin, her parents went to the local butcher in Newark, N.J., and squeezed the pancreas of a dead cow or pig to retrieve the animal's insulin. This impure substance was injected in her arms and legs, leaving ridges and dents where the animal's foreign tissue was not absorbed by her body.