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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

VA Researchers: 20 Percent of Veterans Have Diabetes

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Tuesday, March 18, 2014   

BOISE, Idaho - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has called diabetes a "silent epidemic" among those who have served in the military, and is dedicating resources to better management of the disease. Type 2 diabetes affects almost 20 percent of veterans who use VA health care, compared to about eight percent of the general population.

According to Dr. Timothy O'Leary, acting director at the Office of Research and Development at the VA, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, kidney disease and amputation in the U.S., and up to 80 percent of patients with diabetes will face a heart attack or stroke.

"While diabetes is silent as it initially presents, and needs a blood test or a urine test, its consequences are not silent at all," the doctor warned.

O'Leary said group meetings are proving to be a successful method to help people keep their blood sugar levels controlled. The VA has also found that having veterans use pedometers encourages more physical activity, which can help keep diabetes under control.

Most research shows that successful management of the disease isn't something people do alone. O'Leary points to video-conferencing as another tool that has helped reduce the rate of physical disabilities.

It can be helpful "sometimes even delivered through the computer or through the telephone, by a coach or a counselor far away, which can be important if you live in a rural area or you have transportation problems," he said.

March 25 is American Diabetes Association Alert Day, when everyone is encouraged to take a risk assessment online. Diabetes risk factors include a family history, being overweight or over age 40, suffering diabetes during pregnancy, and lack of physical activity. O'Leary noted that the disease shows up in people without those risk factors, too, and some research indicates exposure to environmental toxins also can trigger the disease.

That online risk assessment tool is at Diabetes.org.




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