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Reporting the Facts, Not the Hype Diabetes - One Word, Three
Diseases
28 April 2006
In recent news,
the "diabetes epidemic" has been wrongly positioned as
one disease. Diabetes is in fact three very different diseases.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is using Jelly
Baby Month in May to correct this mistake and raise funds to
find a cure for the most serious form of the disease - type 1 (juvenile)
diabetes.
Here are five
facts about diabetes that you never knew:
| 1. |
Type 1
diabetes is a lifelong autoimmune disease that cannot be prevented.
Type 2 diabetes can usually be prevented, and treated, by diet
and lifestyle changes. There is also gestational diabetes, which
occurs during pregnancy. |
| 2. |
Every person
with type 1 diabetes needs multiple insulin injections and finger
prick blood sugar tests every day, just to stay alive. |
| 3. |
There is
no cure for type 1 diabetes. Insulin keeps people alive but
it does not cure diabetes. |
| 4. |
The long
term consequences of diabetes can be serious - blindness, nerve
damage, stroke and kidney failure. |
| 5. |
Research
to find a cure is the only way that the 140,000 Australian children
and adults living with type 1 diabetes will experience the long
and healthy life they deserve. |
During Jelly
Baby Month, thousands of kids and their families will be hitting
the streets across Australia and selling jelly baby merchandise
to fundraise for JDRF. The money they raise will fund the best and
most promising Australian research to find a cure for type 1 diabetes
and its complications.
JDRF CEO Mike
Wilson said, "There is a lot of confusion about diabetes in
the community. Many people think that it is always the result of
lunchboxes full of sugar, too much junk food and no exercise. This
can be very upsetting for families living with type 1. This form
of the disease is not preventable and there is no cure. That's why
we are asking Australians to help save lives and buy jelly baby
merchandise during May."
Jelly babies
are the JDRF mascot as they can be a lifesaver for people with type
1 diabetes. The sweet treat is eaten by people with the disease
as a quick source of sugar when their blood sugar level falls dangerously
low.
Jelly baby
products are available from Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets,
Amcal pharmacies, Medibank Private Retail Centres, and JDRF's online
store (www.jdrf.org.au) during
May.
ENDS
For further
information or to arrange an interview/photograph with a child from
your area who is living with type 1 diabetes:
Karolyn Andrews, Media & PR Manager, JDRF
Ph. 02 9966 0400 (x203) or 0403 787 077 | email: kandrews@jdrf.org.au
About JDRF:
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is the world's largest
not-for-profit supporter of diabetes research, investing $130 million
in the search to find a cure for type 1 diabetes each year. JDRF
was founded in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes,
a disease which strikes people suddenly, makes them dependent on
multiple daily injections of insulin to survive and at risk of devastating
health complications like blindness, kidney failure, heart disease
and amputation.
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