Diabetes

A new study gives the strongest evidence yet that obesity surgery can cure diabetes. Patients who had surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs were five times more likely to see their diabetes disappear over the next two years than were patients who had standard diabetes care, according to Australian researchers.

Speaker shows other diabetics how to climb mountains

Life's hurdles can seem a bit daunting to anyone sometimes, but athlete Will Cross showed fellow diabetics Monday night that they could still climb mountains despite their disease.Cross spoke at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle as the second in a series of five free diabetes awareness programs sponsored annually by Concerned About Diabetes in Mississippi, a Tupelo-based non-profit group.“The message is simple: Diabetes doesn't have to define you or stop you. These people may not want to climb Everest, but everyone has goals to reach whether it's being able to mow the lawn or walk at the mall. Just like them, I have to juggle my food intake with my level of exercise and insulin to balance what I do - as long as you properly manage you can do anything," Cross said.For Cross, that balance makes climbing actual mountains even more of a challenge since he has to keep more hydrated to remove natural poisons called ketones from his blood, do extra blood monitoring because the lack of oxygen speeds the metabolism, reserve extra food in case his sugar gets low and keep life-saving insulin from freezing by storing it next to his skin or in a thermos.He was diagnosed in 1976, at the age of 9, but climbed his first mountain in Patagonia at 14.