THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503160006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
You can't call it a ``touch of sugar'' anymore.
In fact, diabetes is a serious disease with devastating results. As a leading cause of heart disease, blindness, kidney disease and nerve damage leading to amputations, diabetes leaves a dangerous toll on patients and their families. Unfortunately, half of all people who have this serious disease will not know they have it until faced with one of these complications.
Therefore, the American Diabetes Association will be spreading the word on March 28 with the American Diabetes Alert. Each year, our association uses this one day to concentrate resources to encourage people to take a simple written test to find out if they're at risk for diabetes.
Local hospitals, too, will be sponsoring free blood-glucose screenings in an effort to find the 40,000 local residents who have undiagnosed diabetes.
So mark March 28 on your calendar and call 1-800-DIABETES for a free risk test and other helpful information.
Until there's a cure, there's the American Diabetes Association.
LATIYA CLARK, R.N., president
South Hampton Roads Chapter
American Diabetes Association
Norfolk, March 9, 1995 by CNB