Wednesday, November 10, 1999
New tools for diabetes
Products improve quality of life for patients
BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When she was a girl of 5, Arlene Frankel listened from a room away while doctors talked about the diabetes they had just diagnosed as the cause of her prolonged sickness.
“I overheard the doctors say that I would never live to my 21st birthday and that if I did, the quality of my life would be zilch,” the 57-year-old Blue Ash woman remembers.
She set out to prove them wrong, and for 52 years, she has, partly by continuing to educate herself about new tools for combating diabetes.
This weekend, the Diabetes Expo '99 at the Sharonville Convention Center will feature many new products for diabetics. Mrs. Frankel hopes her half-century ability to cope successfully with diabetes (and breast cancer in 1990) will inspire others — young or old, newly diagnosed or long-term diabetes survivors — to take charge of a disease that can be financially costly and risky to good health.
The expo is a one-day event to demonstrate and provide information about medicines, devices, products, foods and other services for people with diabetes.
“Always get other opinions. Search for knowledge,” advises Mrs. Frankel, who has avoided severe diabetic complications by actively monitoring her disease. Her current Advantage blood-sugar monitor, for example, has a 30-day memory for tracking her insulin levels.
“Talk to as many people as you can. Never fill a prescription without educating yourself about it first,” she says. “If you don't feel comfortable or satisfied with your doctor-patient relationship, then walk away and find a new physician who will listen and work with you. Use your intuition and intelligence.”
New products and devices make self-care easier and more affordable, says John Dinkelaker, pharmacist at Kunkel Pharmacy in Anderson Township and a diabetic for 32 years. Blood-sugar monitors, for example, now come with software that can be downloaded to a home computer for graphing or charting a person's readings over a day or several weeks.
“With managed care, doctors don't often have a lot of time to do this, or to download meters or to talk to patients about what the information means,” he says. “It makes us feel good that we're able to help people prevent some of the complication of diabetes.”
Some of the new products, devices and technologies will be on display at the expo. They include, among others:
Monitors/pumps
• MiniMed is an insulin pump, about the size of a person's palm, that pumps tiny amounts of insulin into the body at regular intervals throughout the day. Its $5,000 is covered by many insurers. A tiny tube is implanted under the person's skin, held in place by tape. The pump holds premeasured doses of insulin, plugs into the tube and delivers insulin regularly. It can be worn in a pocket, clipped to a belt, hidden under clothes and disconnected for swimming, bathing or sports. Wearers must still test blood sugar regularly.
• Duet blood-glucose monitor measures both blood sugar and proteins, with a function that averages a person's continuous blood glucose levels over the past 2-3 weeks. It's helpful for people starting or switching diabetes medicines to see how effectively they work (or not). About $300.
Testers
• Lasette is a no-needle lancing device that uses a precise laser beam to vaporize skin tissue for withdrawing a drop of blood to test for sugar levels. It has 15 different power settings for optimal penetration and elimination of pain. When activated, Lasette sounds like a camera flash and feels like a tiny pressurized poke. Cost: $2,000 for use mainly in doctor's offices and pharmacies (a lower-cost home version is in the works). Good for children who don't enjoy insulin shots but like finger-price blood tests even less.
Food
• Custom Cuisine is a line of premeasured, ready-to-cook meals from MenuDirect. Order via the Internet or by phone and the food is shipped frozen to your home. Meals, a la carte foods and snacks meet dietary guidelines for diabetics and include low-sugar, low-fat and low-calorie meals. Prices range from $1.99-$5.99. Call (888) 636-8123 or visit www.c-cuisine.com.
• Order sugar-free, low-fat and low-calorie foods from www.diet-shop.com, a division of Bernard Food Industries. Offerings include sugar-free bake mixes (Sweet "n Low), Calorie Control dessert mixes, beverages, gourmet dips and seasonings, and ready-to-make meals. Order at www.diet-shop.com or (800) 325-5409.
• The www.netgrocer.com site offers a diabetic solution store featuring 750 non-prescription and non-perishable food products — glucose monitors to cookies — for people with diabetes. Users also have access to “instant” coupons offered online.
Clothing
• Because diabetes can inhibit blood circulation to the legs and feet, many diabetics develop numbness in the toes or foot sores that do not heal quickly. More importantly, sores, tears in the skin or irritation can escalate to gangrene and risk of amputation. No Ridge Plus socks use cross-stretch construction to eliminate seams that can irritate, rub and break the skin. $8.99 a pair at some Kroger pharmacies.
ABOUT DIABETES
Diabetes is a disease that affects about 16 million Americans, one-third of whom do not know they have it. It kills more than 193,000 people a year and is the 7th-leading cause of death among U.S. adults. Diabetes is more common among minorities than whites.
• Type I diabetes (or juvenile diabetes) means the body does not produce insulin, and people with this kind of disease usually must take daily injections of insulin. About 10 percent of diabetics have Type I, and it usually develops in childhood or young adulthood.
• Type II diabetes, usually occuring later in life and linked with being overweight, means the body can't produce enough insulin or can't use it properly. Symptoms include increased thirst and hunger, excess urination, blurred vision, drowsiness, nausea and loss of stamina. Type I symptoms usually develop quickly and must be treated quickly, while Type II symptoms can linger for years before being detected. Treatment involves weight loss, exercise, insulin injections, oral insulin medicines and attention to nutrition.
LOCAL EVENTS
• Diabetes and High Blood Pressure Health Expo '99, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association, is noon-4 p.m. Sunday at Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road, Sharonville. Information booths, vendors, question-answer sessions, meal planning ideas, foot screenings and a keynote talk by Harvard University's Dr. Edward S. Horton, director of research at Joslin Diabetes Center. Doors open at 11 a.m. Information, (888) 342-2383.
• Diabetes Dinner Lecture, sponsored by TriHealth, is 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday at TriHealth Fitness and Health Pavilion, 6200 Pfeiffer Road, Blue Ash. Diabetes educator Cheryl Angel offers information on diabetes with a cooking demonstration and dinner by dietitian Becky Diener. $35, register by calling 985-6746.
• Diabetes Health Check-Up Card, offered by the Health Alliance, is free to anyone with diabetes (call 585-2273). The pocket-sized card allows diabetics to keep track of the blood-sugar, dietary and insulin readings and measures that need to be checked regularly to monitor, control and treat diabetes.
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