[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 132 (Monday, September 28, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11019-S11020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         JUVENILE DIABETES FOUNDATION ``WALK TO CURE DIABETES''

  Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, on September 26, people all across 
America joined in the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation's ``Walk to Cure 
Diabetes.''
  Today, approximately 16 million Americans suffer from diabetes. Heart 
and kidney disease, strokes, blindness, loss of limbs, and nerve damage 
are just some of the complications associated with this dread disease. 
An estimated 179,000 people die from this deadly disease and its 
complications every year. Unfortunately, diabetes rates are growing 
worldwide.
  I rise today to commend the ``Walk to Cure Diabetes,'' which is an 
effort to increase public awareness about this disease and to raise 
private sector funding for the search for a cure.
  In Albuquerque, my hometown, hundreds of New Mexicans participated in 
the ``Walk to Cure Diabetes.'' They joined thousands of Americans who 
walked and ran to raise more than $40 million to support research for 
better diagnosis, treatment and, ultimately, a cure to diabetes.
  I am heartened by the fact that participation in this grassroots 
effort is growing in New Mexico, where diabetes hits especially hard 
among our American Indian and Hispanic people. Among these populations, 
this disease is exacting a devastating toll.
  I would like to thank the ``Team Domenici'' runners, most of whom are 
associated with Albuquerque's Mountainside YMCA, who will represent my 
support for this endeavor. These ``Walk to Cure Diabetes'' team members 
included: Mary Howell, Chris Howell, Loretta Koski, Rosanna Thomas, Kim 
Babb, Loren Schneider, Mike Green, Chrissy Dukeminier, Becky Voccio, 
Stephanie Browne, Carole Smith, Jim Hughes, Debby Baness, and Lisa 
Breeden.
  Where the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and other organizations work 
to shore up private sector support, I am pleased that Congress and the 
administration have strengthened the federal government's investment in 
diabetes treatments and the search for a cure.
  When we negotiated the five-year Balanced Budget Agreement in 1997, I 
was pleased to have initiated $30 million annually for a five-year 
Indian Health Service (IHS) diabetes treatment effort aimed at American 
Indian populations where diabetes rates are almost three times the rate 
in the general population. We also provided another $150 million over 
five years for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for a similar 
effort aimed specifically at juvenile diabetes.
  As part of these national efforts, new resources will be put toward 
understanding Type 1 diabetes, which adversely afflicts thousands of 
young Americans. This form of diabetes occurs when the insulin-
producing cells in the pancreas are inexplicably destroyed.
  This infusion of federal resources will also allow the IHS and CDC to 
establish a Diabetes Prevention Research Center in Gallup, N.M., to 
develop coordinated preventative efforts to help control the growing 
number of diabetes cases among American Indians.
  Dr. Gerald Bernstein of the American Diabetes Association has 
reported that the gene that predisposes a person to diabetes is five 
times more prevalent in American Indians than in whites, and twice as 
prevalent in blacks, Hispanics and Asians than in non-Hispanic whites. 
In the 1950's, the IHS officially reported negligible rates of diabetes 
among Navajo Indians. In less than 50 years, diabetes has gone from 
negligible to rampant and epidemic.
  In part, the diabetes problem in the United States can be helped by 
lifestyle changes among those people predisposed to the disease. A 
concerted effort is needed to teach people how proper nutrition, early 
detection and treatment can help save lives. This will not be easy. In 
the case of Navajo and Zuni Indians, for example, prevention can be 
difficult to incorporate into

[[Page S11020]]

daily reservation life. Exercise programs may not be readily available, 
dietary changes may be contrary to local custom for preparing foods, or 
soft drinks may be routinely substituted for drinking water that is not 
plentiful or potable.
  These kinds of factors in Indian life will be studied carefully at 
the Gallup Diabetes Prevention Research Center. Recommendations and CDC 
assistance will be provided to IHS service providers throughout the 
Navajo Nation, the Zuni Pueblo, and other Apache and Pueblo Indians in 
New Mexico and Arizona. The improved diagnostic and prevention programs 
will flow from this Gallup center to all IHS facilities around the 
country.
  Through these efforts we hope diabetes rates will drop, and not 
continually increase as they have for the past four decades. The number 
of U.S. diabetes cases reported annually between 1980 and 1994 has 
risen steadily, from 5.5 million cases to 7.7 million cases. The number 
of diagnosed cases is up from 1.6 million Americans in 1958.
  The human toll is devastating and the medical costs of treating 
diabetes will continue to escalate unless our medical and prevention 
research efforts are more successful. While we still have not found a 
cure for diabetes, enough is known today to significantly control the 
negative end results of diabetes like blindness, amputation, and kidney 
failure.
  The ```Walk to Cure Diabetes'' has been helpful in raising public 
awareness of the growing diabetes problem. I am pleased that we in the 
Senate join this effort through federal funding, policy initiatives and 
moral support.
  Madam President, I would encourage my colleagues to note the 1998 
``Walk to Cure Diabetes.'' It is one step in the American quest to 
attack this awful disease and improve the situation for all the people 
who are susceptible to the ravages of diabetes.

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