Diabetes' 'littlest victims': youth advocate recounts his life with the disease- and his hope for the future

My name is Gilles Attipoe. I am 12 years old and I have had diabetes for more than half my life. I was diagnosed when I was 5. Since then, I have had to make many difficult choices.

In elementary school, my difficult decisions had to do with my classmates. How much information I should tell them about my diabetes and how much would they understand? At 7 years old, how do I explain to them why I can have a snack in the middle of our math lab and the teacher does not say a thing? They wanted to get their snacks out, too. Do I want to get up in front of the class and do a full lecture on diabetes or just confide in my close friends? How about the kid who does not know how to put himself in the shoes of others?

To manage my diabetes, I use a pump, a device that automatically infuses insulin through a site on my stomach or side. Managing diabetes with this type of therapy is a big improvement. Six years ago, I was taking injections of insulin at every meal and sometimes in-between to keep my blood sugar level within a normal range.

Diabetes is a complicated disease, but it can be very easily managed in most cases. With new technologies coming and research booming, changes are all but certain. If you are diabetic, you have to check the amount of sugar in your blood about four to eight times a day to make sure that your cells are getting the fuel they need to do their work--like keeping your heart working and your brain functioning properly. You do this by sticking your finger with a needle to get the sample of blood for the test. If you average six times a day, that is about 2,190 pin pricks a year. You have 10 fingers, so that is 219 "ouches" per finger.

Doing these tests in public will attract unwanted attention from time to time, especially in restaurants. I have been very lucky. Almost all of my teachers have had some experience with diabetes. Even my school nurse was diabetic. And then there is help from organizations like the American Diabetes Association. Its mission is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by it.

I am now the National Youth Advocate for the American Diabetes Association. My role as an advocate is to talk to others about diabetes and its effects, and to let them know how important it is to stay healthy in hopes of preventing this condition. I have traveled across the country talking with young people living with diabetes. I share my experiences and convey hope. I try to boost their courage, while waiting for a cure. It has been the most effective way of getting the message out.

In the speeches that I give, I try to give the audience some idea of the challenges in managing this disease. Most of these have nothing to do with managing the diabetic condition. Instead, I talk mostly about what it's like to handle the pressures of being a kid with the pressures of having a disease of the autoimmune system.

I also like to talk about speedskating. For me speedskating is my thing. I enjoy it a lot. It is a tough sport that requires you to stay on top of your game. This means lots of practice workouts to stay competitive. I have been lucky in competition and have some medals at various levels to show for the work I put into it.

To skate well in competitions I have to eat the proper foods (no junk or fast foods). I have to have these foods in the right amount. Overeating or not eating enough has consequences. The time of the day that I eat is also very important.

Basically, exercise helps good eating habits. Exercise is very important for humans to stay healthy and even more so for people with diabetes. Diabetics have to at times eat when they are not hungry. This is because blood sugars can drop while you may not be hungry. So you have to eat a snack to bring the level up again. This can make you put on weight very fast.

Exercise burns the extra sugars that the cells get from the foods we eat, so the body does not have to turn them into fat for storage.

To do nothing about diabetes must not be an option. The problems that arise as a result of not doing anything about diabetes are so great that managing it is a cakewalk. The way that I see it, the cure that groups like the American Diabetes Association and many others are searching for will not be able to help those who don't take good care of themselves.

So, until there is a cure, I will keep on taking good care of myself, and spreading a message of hope. I'm only one voice. But my parents have always told me that my one voice counts.

Pre-Diabetes

Why Early Detection is Key to Prevention

BEFORE a person develops type 2 diabetes, he or she almost always has a condition called, "pre-diabetes"---in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. There are 41 million people in the United States, ages 40 to 74, who have pre-diabetes.

Recent research has shown that some long-term damage to the body, especially the heart and circulatory system, may already be occurring during pre-diabetes. People with pre-diabetes have a 1.5-fold risk of cardiovascular disease compared to people with normal blood glucose. People with diabetes have a two- to four-times increased risk of cardio-vascular disease. While most people with pre-diabetes will likely develop diabetes within a decade, research has also shown that if action is taken to manage blood glucose at the pre-diabetes stage, a person can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes from developing.