A family-friendly walk to fight diabetes

By HAROLD E. FOX

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation holds its Fourth Annual North Bay Walk to Cure Diabetes on Saturday, Oct. 25, a family-friendly walk of about 1.5 miles through the vineyards of Peju and St. Supery wineries in Rutherford.

There will be activities for people of all ages, as well as a Kids’ Corner. The wonderful Napa High Jazz Band will provide music. There will be raffle prizes and silent auction items that include wines and certificates for golf rounds and restaurants. This is one of five Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Bay Area chapter walks that raise funds to find a cure for diabetes through research.

Type 1, or juvenile diabetes, strikes from infancy through early adulthood and requires insulin injections from the onset of the disease in order to sustain life. The primary cause of the disease is an autoimmune reaction where the patient’s immune system produces antibodies in the bloodstream that destroy the insulin-producing cells in the person’s pancreas. The disease is not outgrown and requires insulin injections or use of an insulin pump for an entire lifetime. Complications affect the heart and kidneys, as well as impairment or loss of eyesight, neurological deficits and amputations.

In Type 2, or adult onset diabetes, the pancreas produces insulin in varying amounts, but the insulin cannot be properly utilized by the cells. Coincidentally, there is also a current rise in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes in adolescents. This is primarily due to poor dietary choices, combined with inactive lifestyles. Type 2 diabetes in these children and adolescents is not the same as Type 1. These Type 2 youngsters usually do not depend on insulin and can often be treated with proper diet and increased activity. The research done by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation also helps Type 2 diabetics who suffer the exact same complications as the Type 1 disease. The mission of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is to prevent the disease and its complications and to find a cure through research.

Stanford, UC San Francisco and other major medical centers are actively working to create an artificial pancreas. By linking up an implanted glucose-sensing device that continually measures the patient’s cellular glucose levels with an insulin pump, this glucose sensor tells the insulin pump, also implanted in the patient, how much of an insulin dose to supply. Both devices are available and in use as separate devices, and researchers are close to accomplishing the link-up between them. Almost all of us know people with diabetes, so we understand how many people this research will help or cure.

We expect about 700 walkers this year on teams and as individuals; we welcome all Napa and surrounding county residents. Registration at St. Supery is at 10 a.m., and the walk starts at 11 a.m. Lunch, soft drinks and water will be provided by our corporate sponsors after the walk. The event ends at 1 p.m. To register your team, to donate or to provide a sponsorship, go to www.walk.jdrf.org or call (415) 977-0360.

(Fox is a medical doctor in Napa.)

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