Changes in personal habits key to reversing diabetes climb

Oklahoma's high rate of diabetes, particularly the Type 2 variety, has been making headlines for years, and with good reason. Type 2 diabetes, which can lead to other serious health problems and prove fatal, was once found primarily in adults who grew more sedentary and gained weight as they aged.

Formerly called “adult onset diabetes,” Type 2 is now found frequently in children, who through the years have grown more obese than ever. The reasons for this are varied, but generally it boils down to too little exercise and too much unhealthy food.

The CDC says 10 percent of Oklahomans had diabetes in 2010, compared with 3 percent in 1995. Dr. Kenneth Copeland, director of the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma isn't sure the percentage jump is as great as the CDC figures represent; nonetheless, “it's a terrible problem and it is absolutely devastating to our economy, and we have to do something about it.”

But what? Since it opened in 2006, the Hamm facility has been a leader in diabetes research in this region. Just last month, the center got a $10.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. It was a renewal of a $12 million grant awarded to the center in 2006. Five junior researchers who had projects funded by that grant were able to obtain independent grant funding for further diabetes research.

The new funding will help researchers who are focused on cardiovascular disease, vascular damage, vision loss, tissue damage and other issues related to diabetes.