FACILITY TO AID DIABETICS SET TO OPEN AT ST. FRANCIS MARCH 1

Diabetics in Southeast Missouri and their physicians will have a new resource for information and treatment options on the disease.

The target date for St. Francis Medical Center's Diabetes Education and Management Center to be operational is March 1, said Dr. Daniel S. Duick, medical director for the project.

"The hallmark becomes education," Duick, an endocrinologist, said. "The patient has to understand their disease: They have to understand the ramifications of diet, the treatment programs, physical activity and maintaining wellness or good health."

Jennal Johnson, a family nurse, will coordinate the center and the hospital's diabetes treatment program. She has been visiting several treatment centers to learn what programs have worked at other hospitals, Duick said.

Part of the center's program will probably include two-day workshops for diabetics and their families on management of the disease, he said. Cooking demonstrations, information about injecting insulin and use of other medications and other topics relating to diabetes management will be included, he said.

Staff members hope to develop an interdisciplinary, on-going program to make sure patients and physicians have access to up-to-date information on care habits, diet, exercise and risk factors like tobacco use, Duick said.

Patients will be referred to the center by their physicians, he said.

According to new figures from the National Institutes of Health, an estimated 16 million Americans have diabetes, Duick said. "Approximately half of them don't know they have it," he said.

Health-care costs relating to diabetes are staggering, he said.

"If approximately 3 to 4 percent of people have diabetes, and the projected cost for health care is $800 billion, then approximately $115 billion to $120 billion, or one out of every seven dollars, is diabetes-related. That's the overwhelming problem. You've got some massive, massive epidemiologic and disease problems."

Diabetes occurs when the body does not produce sufficient insulin to process glucose -- the sugar created to fuel the body when food is digested -- or cannot properly use the insulin correctly. When glucose builds up in the bloodstream, it causes tissues and organs, including blood vessels, the eyes and the kidneys, to deteriorate.

There are two types of diabetes, Duick said. Type I, or insulin-dependent, diabetes occurs mostly in children or young adults when the pancreas produces insufficient insulin to handle the body's needs.

People with Type I diabetes need to take insulin injections and follow a special diet.

Type II, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, usually occurs in adults over 40 and makes up about 95 percent of all diabetes. It can often be controlled through diet, exercise and medication.

Type II diabetes can go undetected for years, Duick said, and by the time it is diagnosed patients may have developed related health problems, including high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, neurological or neuropathic damage or peripheral vascular disease.

"They have these other associated high-risk factors, and that's the impetus to develop the education or treatment and management center," he said. "It will tie into all the metabolic systems over time. It's quite predictable. You're going to get into trouble about half the time if you don't get it under control."

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness and amputations of lower limbs among adults in the United States, Duick said.

Warning signs of diabetes include frequent urination, sudden weight loss, excessive thirst, extreme hunger, weakness and fatigue, irritability, blurred vision or any change in vision, slow healing of cuts, especially on the feet, frequent infections, tingling or numbness in the extremities and frequent skin infections or itchy skin.