San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Proclaims March 25, 2003 Defeat Diabetes Day
Honors Man on 10,000 Mile Walk Around US
San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared today Defeat Diabetes Day in San Francisco to honor Andrew P. Mandell – Mr. Diabetes® who is walking a 10,000 mile perimeter of the United States to promote diabetes awareness, detection and prevention.
Supervisor Tom Ammiano sponsored the resolution to support Mr. Diabetes efforts on behalf of 2 out of every 7 San Franciscans affected by the disease and the 3,100 miles he has already walked.
Nationwide 22 million people have been diagnosed with the disease and another 2,200 are being diagnosed daily. Astonishingly, nearly one-half of all diabetics don’t know they have this potentially debilitating disease and another 17+ million people are pre-diabetics who aren’t aware that they are in danger of acquiring the disease. The complications from diabetes can be severe. In fact, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the United States and can also lead to amputations, strokes, heart attacks, kidney disease and death. In fact, last year diabetes was the cause of 200,000 deaths in the US.
“We now have the ability to profile those likely to get the disease and take proactive steps to prevent it” says Mandell. “75% of the time the disease is preventable, but after it is acquired there is no cure,” he added.
The costs of diabetes are staggering – last year $132 billion dollars was spent. Direct medical costs were $91.8 billion in 2002. Indirect costs included lost workdays, restricted activity days; death and permanent disabilities totaled $39.8 billion.
Mandell, who is the Executive Director of the Defeat Diabetes Foundation, encourages everyone to visit his website at: www.defeatdiabetes.org and take the free screening test.
The Foundation is dedicated to identifying, informing and educating the diabetic about health and fitness and dealing with the diabetic condition. The foundations mission is to be the most informative and widely used diabetes resource center on the Internet, with a special emphasis on providing information pertaining to the “Early Detection” and “Self-Management” of diabetes.
Mr. Mandell will be walking through San Francisco through the rest of the week and will be crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday, leaving the region and heading to Seattle.
###
