DEALING WITH DIABETES: JACKSON GIRL ORGANIZES FUND-RAISING WALK FOR DIABETES

Majhon Phillips knows that having diabetes changes your life. She's watched her father, Allen, learn to manage his diabetes by monitoring his blood sugar levels and constantly watching his diet.

The Phillips family had to change its eating habits and its lifestyle after Majhon's father was diagnosed as a diabetic three years ago. Diabetes is a disease that affects 16 million Americans whose bodies don't produce proper amounts of insulin, which is used to help break down sugar and starches during digestion.

In Cape Girardeau County, the disease affects 3,895 people, but 1,300 of those people likely don't know they are living with diabetes. Local doctors diagnose nearly 200 new cases each year.

The symptoms of diabetes are often called "silent killers" because they don't offer strong warnings until the disease is more severe. Some things to watch for are having high blood pressure, having a family history of diabetes, being very thirsty or urinating frequently, losing weight without trying, weakness, fatigue and drowsiness and tingling in the hands and feet and blurred vision.

Majhon's father was constantly thirsty and would eat without ever gaining weight. Allen Phillips lost 30 pounds in a single month before his diagnosis.

Now that Majhon, 13, knows more about diabetes, she wants people to understand the disease and how to live with it. She's organized a "School Walk for Diabetes," which begins with registration at 8 a.m. Saturday. Children from kindergarten to 12th grade are encouraged to walk at Cape County Park North. Prizes will be awarded to the children, and schools that participate are eligible for coupons to be used toward buying new gym and sports equipment.

The event is the second that Majhon, a seventh-grader at St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson, Mo., has organized for the American Diabetes Association. She hopes to raise more than the $9,000 the walk raised last year.

The American Diabetes Association uses the money for education, research and awareness programs.

Diabetes affects the whole family, said Majhon, who has given educational assemblies at area schools. After her father's diagnosis, the family cut snacking and began eating three meals a day and with menus that include all the food groups.

"You have to eat regularly, and your lifestyle is geared around meals," said her mother, Aleda Phillips. "It's such a crazy disease."

"We have stopped eating candy and desserts and have changed our diet so it's better for us," Majhon said.

She remembers one of the first trips to the grocery store after her father's diagnosis when her parents spent what seemed like hours just reading the labels on food packages. "It was kind of depressing," Majhon said.

So much of the processed food had sugar contents that were too high for her father to eat. "At first he was angry, and we hated the food industry for putting so much sugar in manufactured foods," Aleda Phillips said.

Now the family has learned to enjoy sugar-free pies or to buy organic foods and products made with natural sugars.

Making lifestyle changes is one of the most difficult things about a patient's diabetes diagnosis, said Amy Ward, a registered nurse and certified diabetes educator at St. Francis Medical Center.

"There is a lot of anger and grief because it's a loss of lifestyle," she said. But once diabetics learn to manage their disease, things improve.

Better management, better tools and monitoring blood sugar levels help make better diabetes care for patients today than in years past. And better management of diabetes could mean less complications or a prolonged period before complications begin. They may include high blood pressure, blindness and eye problems, kidney disease, heart disease and stroke or nerve disease within 15 years.

"Diabetes affects every single piece of your body," Ward said. Doctors still don't know what causes diabetes but believe that the tendency to develop the illness exists at birth.

Studies done in both the United States and Europe concluded that people who were better at keeping their sugar levels on an even keel developed fewer complications from diabetes later on.

More products and medicines are available today to help diabetics deal with their disease. There are primarily two types of diabetes: Type I that usually affects children and young adults and Type II that more often occurs in adults.

Type II patients account for nearly 90 percent of the diabetes diagnosed in America, and research expects that to increase by 40 percent in coming years.

Because people are less active and more overweight, researchers expect more youth and children to develop diabetes later in life. Treatment of Type II diabetes doesn't always require insulin injections. It can often be managed with just diet and exercise or pills but sometimes progresses to a daily insulin injection or use of a pump that measures the body's insulin throughout the day.

Progress in medication and treatment is always being made. A new long-acting, clear insulin should be available sometime in May. It works like a pump by regulating sugar levels for longer periods and crystallizes once it gets under the skin. Another pharmaceutical company is planning to make an insulin inhaler that should be available in 18 months, Ward said.

Both St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital offer diabetes education courses. Education is key, especially for children and youth, Majhon said.

"I'd like people to realize that they can help do something," she said.

DIABETES EDUCATION CLASSES

Both hospitals in Cape Girardeau offer classes on diabetes education and management. Call the hospitals for more specific details.

St. Francis Medical Center offers a basic skills course three times during the month. The next class meets at 9 a.m. Saturday and ends at noon. The same course is again offered from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. April 12 and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. April 26.

The medical center also offers a comprehensive day-long course once each month. The next class will be April 18, beginning at 8 a.m. Registration is required and should be made by calling the Diabetes Management Center at 331-5897.

The diabetes support group meets from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. April 19.

Southeast Missouri Hospital offers a diabetes support group that will meet from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Generation Family Resource Center. An education program on carbohydrates and meal planning will be this month's topic. A "spring fling" event for Type I diabetics is planned from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 24. More details will be announced later.

For information on either event, call the Diabetes Education and Resource Center at 651-5844.

ARE YOU AT RISK FOR DIABETES?

Diabetes is a disease that occurs when the body fails to produce proper amounts of insulin.

The risk of getting diabetes increases as you age, if you gain too much weight or don't stay active.

Diabetes affects 16 million people in the United States and nearly 90 percent of them are adults.

People with adult onset diabetes (Type II) most often develop the disease after age 40.

The risk of developing Type I diabetes, which most often affects children, is higher than virtually all other severe chronic childhood diseases.

The symptoms of Type I diabetes often mimic the flu in children. Peak incidence occurs during puberty, around age 10 to 12 in girls and ages 12 to 14 for boys.

Often people develop diabetes without ever realizing it because the symptoms aren't noticed. Some warning signs to look for:

* Having high blood pressure

* Having a family history of diabetes

* Women who have diabetes during pregnancy or have a baby weighing more than 9 pounds at birth

* Being very thirsty

* Urinating often

* Tingling in hands and feet

* Weakness and fatigue

* Losing weight without trying

* Irritability

* Drowsiness

* Itching

* Extreme hunger

* Nausea and vomiting

* Recurring hard-to-heal bladder, skin and gum infections.

Source: American Diabetes Association

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: A school walk for diabetes

WHEN: 8 a.m. registration and 9 a.m. walk Saturday

WHERE: Cape County Park North

WHY: To raise money for the American Diabetes Association to help with research about the disease.