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Health Alert: Online tips for kids with diabetes

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(National) December 13, 2006 - Today's young people are the most technology-savvy in history, so it's natural for them to turn to the internet for information. That led one diabetes specialist to tap into their wired world.

Kathryn Calafiore, 16, has been living with Type One diabetes for a dozen years. She needs insulin to survive.

Add life as a teenager and it isn't easy. Kathryn says, "So many things are flying at you at once, especially when you're like going through puberty, that like you have to make sure you're taking enough insulin, exercising enough, eating the right things and like making sure that your numbers are staying under control."

A new website geared to teenaged diabetics may help. It's called "Think Like a Pancreas."

Doctor Harold Starkman developed the online resource. Dr. Starkman says, "Kids are hard to sit down in a room and teach and this is something they could learn at their own speed and this was a modality that they're really comfortable with."

Kathryn enjoyed the site, "I thought it was so cute and so funny and that it made diabetes almost fun because he had the silly character Pierre Pancreas like telling you how to do stuff."

The playful, interactive site has separate areas for girls and boys going through puberty, trouble shooting tips for teens, and explores all sorts of lifestyle issues. Dr. Starkman talks about how the site can address "the things that they're really not always comfortable about asking about in our office - drugs and sex and rock 'n' roll and things that really have an effect on diabetes."

Kathryn says the website is so full of information, it may seem overwhelming at first, "It's like wow that's a lot of stuff you have to remember, but the bottom line is diabetes isn't a big deal once you get the hang of it and once you get everything under control, it's like you can have a normal life."

With helpful hints from Pierre and the Keytones, it's a definite possibility.

Posted 5:00pm by Bryce Mursch