Nick Jonas, Mary Tyler Moore And Sugar Ray Leonard Request Federal Funding For Diabetes Research

By Mariko Lamb-Talk Radio News Service

Celebrity witnesses Mary Tyler Moore, Nick Jonas, and Sugar Ray Leonard testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs today to stress the importance of diabetes research and urge Congress to renew funding for the Special Diabetes Program, a supplemental federal funding program for diabetes research.

Moore, actress and International Chairman of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, said, “today our goal is to persuade our Senators and Representatives to make a promise. We hope you will promise to remember us when you vote on the Special Diabetes Program and other important programs that affect all of us with diabetes.”

World champion boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, described the financial challenge he faced living with a father struggling with diabetes.

“I had to face the reality of my father’s illness and the incredible medical bills that resulted from his life with diabetes,” he said. “My decision to turn professional was based largely on the desire to help my family cover the costs of my father’s care.”

Jonas, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2005, shared his stories of living with diabetes and urged Congress to fund research to find a cure. “While technology has made it much easier for me to manage my diabetes,” he said, “technology is not a cure. Insulin is not a cure. I know that the promise of a cure lies only in research.”

The Committee’s witnesses were accompanied by Children’s Congress 2009, a delegation of 150 children living with Type 1 diabetes. Children’s Congress was started in 1999, and the delegation has since met five times on Capitol Hill to testify about living with diabetes.

Mary Tyler Moore: Independent Woman- Dependent on Insulin

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Young people with Type 1 diabetes will converge next month to raise awareness for their disease with a famous face leading their way. Actress Mary Tyler Moore announced the event today at a National Press Club. The upcoming “Promise to Remember Me” will be held June 22-24.

Moore who is the International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, said, “I love talking to these kids, answering their questions, hearing their triumphs, their fears...and because they share their stories with me I am able to witness the special courage of our children with Type 1. It is in their courage that I find new strength to face my own day to day challenges with diabetes, as well as other things.”

Type 1 diabetes is a disease that is sometimes referred to as "juvenile diabetes" because it develops in children, adolescents and young adults. People suffering from the disease have to control it with diet, exercise and insulin. They also have to be conscience of their blood sugar levels. There is currently no cure for diabetes.

The Children’s Congress includes 150 delegates from across the country. Their goal is to persuade Congress to remember them when voting on important issues, such as stem cell research, that could affect the discovery of a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

“It is the energy and commitment of our Type 1 families that makes me certain that we will, soon, be able to translate promising research into promises kept for a cure,” said Moore.

Moore has written a new book entitled Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes. She noted that in the book she wanted to highlight two main areas of JDRF research: development of an artificial pancreas and the increasing work being done to translate new ideas into new therapies and cures.

She did not publicly share that she had Type 1 until 1984 when she was asked to become the JDRF International Chairman. She added, “I had not yet taken ownership of my diabetes. I wasn’t sure I wanted the world to know that behind the smile that could turn it on was an independent woman who was dependent on multiple shots of insulin a day, just to stay alive.”

Moore said she is grateful that she was asked to serve in the position and has learned a lot about herself by sharing some of her “personal self” with the public. She is also proud to be a part of JDRF and its continually extensive Type 1 research for a cure.

Obesity is everyone’s problem

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing today on “Childhood Obesity: The Declining Health of America’s Next Generation.” Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), called the “champion of children” by Sen. Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa), presided over the hearing and said that the childhood obesity epidemic is one of the most urgent threats to American children. Dodd explained that “our children’s generation” may be the fist in the modern era to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents. He also said that nearly one out of every three American children are obese or are at risk of becoming obese and children are increasingly being diagnosed with type 2, “adult-onset” diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Dodd said that childhood obesity is a problem that “affects all of us,” and “we’re all going to be paying the bill.” He explained that the obese spend thirty six percent more on health care and seventy seven percent more on medications. According to Dodd, everyone - parents, schools, governments, employers - needs to see the rising childhood obesity rates for what they are: a medical emergency.

Jeffery Levi, the Executive Director for Trust for America’s Health, said that approximately twenty three million children are obese or overweight in the U.S., and rates of obesity have nearly tripled since 1980. He explained that the U.S., as a nation, needs a cultural shift in which healthy environments, physical activity and healthy eating become the norm. Francine Kaufman, a past national president of the American Diabetes Association, said that obesity has reached epidemic proportion in the U.S. Kaufman also said that during the mid-1990s, type 2 diabetes in youth increased ten-fold and mirrored the childhood obesity epidemic. She explained that there is no doubt that obesity in youth, along with its associated medical conditions, is the major health challenge of this century, and more needs to be done to combat it.

Margaret Grey, dean and professor of the Yale School of Nursing, said that this obesity epidemic in youth threatens not only the future of children with chronic diseases and a decreased lifetime, but the epidemic is multi-faceted and will ultimately affect the workforce and thus the economy. Grey explained that obesity and diabetes have physical complications - cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, blindness, and amputations - as well as complications related to quality of life - depression and academic achievement. She also said that this generation of youth cannot survive if Congress continues to pay for the care of their heart attacks, but not for the intensive behavioral care that it will take to reverse the epidemic.

Death by peanut

She feels like she’s taking her child into a war zone, where each place has a potential for death.

It was the sentiment expressed by Rhonda Adkins, wife of country music superstar Trace Adkins, but largely echoed throughout the room by parents of food allergic children. The topic was “Five Steps Forward for Food Allergy,” held in honor of the 11th Annual Food Allergy Awareness Week. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), himself a grandfather of a child with food allergies, spoke briefly before the group, saying that it is clear that this is a growing threat to our young people, and awareness needs to increase.

Lack of awareness about food allergies is common. Most people are not aware that serious complications, such as anaphylaxis, can occur within minutes of exposure to a food allergen. Anaphylaxis can kill, because the reaction is so severe that the throat will close, and the individual will literally suffocate during an allergic reaction. Some children and adults are so sensitive to an allergen, such as peanuts, that they can have a reaction just from invisible residue on someone’s hands or from fumes floating in the air.

Such reactions are what Anne Munoz-Furlong wants to avoid. She is the founder of FAAN, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. The goal of the organization is to raise public awareness about food allergies, and during Food Allergy Awareness Week (May 11-17) their agenda is to promote the Five Steps Forward. School Guidelines, Food Allergy Information, Guidelines for Diagnosis, Research, and Improved Allergen Labeling, are the Five Steps Forward. Legislation is on the table for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act of 2008, namely S. 1232 and H.R. 2063.

Cancer research gets this much money, said Kyle Ericson, a 10-year-old boy with severe food allergies, as he held his arms out as far as he could. Diabetes Type II, he said, as he shortened his arm span, not quite as much. But food allergies, he continued, putting his hands almost completely together, gets almost nothing at all. Dr. Hugh Sampson, Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology and Director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, has been researching a vaccine to help cure peanut allergies.

After identifying the three proteins that are causing allergic reactions, Sampson said, they worked on a way to “fix the peanut,” essentially creating something that may well end up being the cure for peanut allergies. Tests have been done on peanut allergic mice, and apparently, the mice are no longer allergic to peanuts after receiving the treatment. Although he is not about to state they’ve found the cure, paperwork will be submitted to the FDA in June so that human trials would be able to commence.

The largest hindrance to the challenge of food allergies, is the lack of knowledge in the average person, and money for research to learn more about the “why” of allergies. Peanut allergies in children under age five doubled in the years between 1997-2002, and there are a multitude of theories. The most common theory of late is the Hygiene hypothesis, which says that our over-clean society has actually made our immune systems weaker. A second theory, mentioned by Mrs. Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Senator Chris Dodd, is what is nicknamed the “Costco Theory,” stating that an overabundance of particular foods is causing the reactions.

More research is needed, said Dr. Sampson, and more money needs to be appropriated towards research. The Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease were the two institutions he pointed out as likely to be helpful in the search for a cure for food allergies.