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The following information has been excerpted from an email announcement from the World Diabetes Day USA Team to encourage all people with diabetes to participate in the Big Blue Test, today, November 14, 2009, at 2:00 PM in your own time zone.   Those of us with diabetes at iPump will be participating today!

Source: World Diabetes Day USA Team

“TAKE THE BIG BLUE TEST

At 2 pm your time, test your blood sugar, do 14 minutes of exercise, test again and share their results online. (If you are busy at 2 pm, then do it whenever you are free.)

Here’s how to participate:

1. Test your blood sugar.

2. Run, jog, walk the dog or do anything you’d normally do as part of your exercise routine for 14 minutes.

3. Test your blood sugar again.

4. Post your readings and what physical activity you did. If you have a camera, you can also add a photo of your reading(s) or you exercising.

5. If you have a Twitter account, you can also post your readings on Twitter (use the #bigbluetest hashtag) and link back to http://bigbluetest.org.

Places to report your blood sugars:

• http://tudiabetes.com/forum/topics/the-big-blue-test-on-world
• http://www.diabetesdaily.com/bigbluetest
• http://www.diabeticrockstar.com/page/world-diabetes-day
• http://bigbluetest.diabeticconnect.com/

… or at your favorite participating social network!”

Thank you to the World Diabetes Day USA Team for the following great idea:

EMBRACE THE COLOR BLUE

• Wear blue, light a blue candle, put up a blue light bulb or even paint your nails blue.
• Wear enough blue that people will ask: “Why are you wearing so much blue?” Let them know it’s World Diabetes Day and why it matters to you.

Tell everyone you know that today, November 14, 2009 is World Diabetes Day!

If you have diabetes – please participate in this historic event.  I will be participating and so will my two children with diabetes (even though they are not so pleased with the double sugar check part!)

According to Manny Hernandez, founder of TuDiabetes:

Through eight diabetes communities (TuDiabetes, Children With Diabetes, Diabetes Daily, Diabetic Connect, Diabetic Rockstar, dLife, Juvenation and My Diabetes Central) and Twitter, TuDiabetes,com is calling on people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, exercise for 14 minutes, test again and share their results on Nov. 14, 2009 at 14 hours (local time, 2 pm wherever they live).

Please keep an eye on @tudiabetes and/or http://bigbluetest.org for updates about these.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thousands Take The Big Blue Test

On World Diabetes Day

BERKELEY, CA: October 21, 2009 – November 14 is World Diabetes Day. On that day, at 14:00 hours (2 pm, local time), thousands of people with diabetes will test their blood sugar, do 14 minutes of exercise, test again and share their results online.

The event is called The Big Blue Test because the blue circle is the international symbol for diabetes. The idea of a shared “blood sugar test-in” started with an activity organized in July 2009 by TuDiabetes.org, a community for people touched by diabetes. More than a thousand people participated then. Now, we seek to reach thousands of people with diabetes through eight diabetes social networks^* and Twitter. The activity incorporates 14 minutes of physical activity to reinforce the importance of exercise.

“People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar routinely. It can be a very lonely activity.” said Manny Hernandez, co-founder of TuDiabetes and a person with diabetes himself. “We want people to take The Big Blue Test, to shed light on this chronic condition and the importance of exercise on World Diabetes Day.”

Currently, more than 250 million people have diabetes worldwide. Millions more have diabetes but do not know it yet. People with diabetes need to test their blood sugar levels several times a day and exercise regularly.

Participating in this event to raise diabetes awareness on November 14 is easy:

1. Test your blood sugar.
2. Run, jog, walk the dog or do anything you’d normally do as part of your exercise routine for 14 minutes.
3. Test your blood sugar again.
4. Go to http://bigbluetest.org (or your preferred diabetes social network^*) and post your readings and what physical activity you did. If you have a camera, you can also add a photo of your reading(s) or you exercising.
5. If you have a Twitter account, you can also post your readings on Twitter (use the #bigbluetest hashtag) and link back to http://bigbluetest.org.

“We hope to see most readings posted at 14 hours (2 pm) local time, on November 14. If you are early or late, it’s OK,” said Hernandez. “What matters most is that you test your blood sugar often and that you exercise regularly. If you don’t have diabetes, you can take The Big Blue Test. Either way, tell others to test, exercise and share on Nov. 14.”

(*) Participating diabetes social networks:

• TuDiabetes (campaign organizer)
• Children With Diabetes
• Diabetes Daily
• Diabetic Connect
• Diabetic Rockstar
• dLife
• Juvenation
• My Diabetes Central

About TuDiabetes.org

TuDiabetes.org was co-founded in 2007 by Manny Hernandez, a diabetes advocate and social media expert diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2002. The community is run by the Diabetes Hands Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that connects people touched by diabetes and raises diabetes awareness.

TuDiabetes has been featured on Regis Philbin’s Hallmark Heroes, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, Sabado Gigante with Don Francisco, Diabetic Living magazine, Diabetes Positive magazine, El Pais (Spain), Diabetes Hoy (Mexico), the Office of Minority Health web site and many other media outlets and blogs.

For more information please visit: www.TuDiabetes.org.

For information about the Diabetes Hands Foundation, visit: www.DiabetesHandsFoundation.org, email PR@tudiabetes.org or call 650.283.4862.

# # # Please feel free to distribute this press release widely.

Here are some sobering health insurance statistics:

• Latinos make up 15 percent of the United States population.
• Hispanics are the least likely of any ethnic or racial group to have insurance.
• 34 percent of all Hispanics do not have any health insurance.

According to an article by Mary Sanchez on Poder360.com:

This is true despite their [Hispanics] higher-than-average presence in the workforce. So their faint representation in the national conversation on reform is, at best, worrisome to some, and a source of outright outrage to others.

According to the American Diabetes Associations, Hispanics have the second highest rate of diabetes in the United States:

After adjusting for population age differences, 2004-2006 national survey data for people diagnosed with diabetes, aged 20 years or older include the following prevalence by race/ethnicity:

• 6.6% of non-Hispanic whites
• 7.5% of Asian Americans
• 10.4% of Hispanics
• 11.8% of non-Hispanic blacks

Among Hispanics rates were:

• 8.2% for Cubans
• 11.9% for Mexican Americans

12.6% for Puerto Ricans.

And, according to the United States Department of Human & Health Services:

According to a national examination survey, Mexican Americans are twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician.  They have higher rates of end-stage renal disease, caused by diabetes, and they are 50% more likely to die from diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.

• Mexican American adults were 2 times more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician.
• In 2002, Hispanics were 1.5 times as likely to start treatment for end-stage renal disease related to diabetes, compared to non-Hispanic white men.

In 2005, Hispanics were 1.6 times as likely as non-Hispanic Whites to die from diabetes.

Now is a great time for all people with diabetes to take advantage of World Diabetes Day to promote better awareness.  For more information on how you can get involved, visit wddusa.org.

The famous childhood actor, Jerry Mathers, who starred in the 1950s hit family show “Leave it to Beaver” has type 2 diabetes. Now an adult, he is using his celebrity to help other people battling diabetes.

To raise diabetes awareness, Mathers is traveling with the Partnership for Prescription Assistance bus, a mobile patient assistance advocacy initiative. Mathers and the Partnership for Prescription Assistance will in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, Iowa City, and Burlington on October 13, 2009.