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To view the entire article, go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13065-2002Apr8.html

For Tribes, Traditions May Be Key to a Healthier Future

By Mary Annette Pember

 Lorelei DeCora, an Indian Health Service (IHS) nurse and member of the
Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) tribe, had just spent the day in a South Dakota
hospital ward in which every patient was a Native American being treated
for diabetes-related problems. As she walked out, she noticed the clinic
floor littered with pamphlets about how to prevent and treat type 2
diabetes. Suddenly she had a simple realization: "This ain't working."
Pamphlets do not change lives.

Yet in the Native American community, and among other U.S. minority groups,
a great many lives must change if the epidemic of type 2 diabetes is to be
stopped or even slowed. Prevalence of the disease, which is often related
to a high-fat diet and insufficient exercise, has more than tripled since
1990, and it now affects about 17 million Americans. Last week federal
health officials recommended that all overweight adults, and some others at
elevated risk, get tested for "pre-diabetes" to prevent the damage that
full-blown diabetes can wreak.

But in the United States, minorities are anywhere from two to six times
more likely than whites to develop type 2 diabetes, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Native Americans are about
three times more likely than whites to have the disease, according to the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The National Institutes of
Health (NIH) says that some groups of American Indians have the highest
rates of diabetes in the world, with 50 percent or more of adults in some
Native American subpopulations affected.

--

Andr� Cramblit: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council

NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development
needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of
California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com)

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