American Diabetes Association Updates Standards of Medical Care and Select
Position Statements to Guide Health Care Professionals

(Alexandria, VA, January 6, 2005) - Every year, the American Diabetes
Association (ADA) issues Clinical Practice Recommendations, a series of
updated recommendations to help health care providers treat people with
diabetes using the most current research available.  This year's
recommendations, to a greater extent than those published in previous years,
provide a more comprehensive review of ADA's "Standards of Medical Care in
Diabetes," which contain all of ADA's key recommendations.  In addition, the
Clinical Practice Recommendations include current position statements on
certain topics not adequately covered in the "Standards."

More than 18 million Americans are currently living with diabetes - a
chronic disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond to
insulin and can lead to life-threatening illness including heart disease and
stroke, blindness, kidney disease and nerve disease resulting in amputation.

"The Clinical Practice Recommendations, which are updated annually, can
serve as an incredible resource for health care professionals by giving them
the most up-to-date medical information available," said Nathaniel Clark,
MD, RD, National Vice President of Clinical Affairs for the American
Diabetes Association.  "New research is published almost daily.  What we do
is constantly review all of that research so that we can provide these
increasingly busy practitioners with information about the most effective
treatment options for people with diabetes."

The updated 2005 Clinical Practice Recommendations, which can be downloaded
to a Palm OS Device, include additions to the "Standards" related to
screening for diabetes, prevention of type 2 diabetes, psychosocial
assessment and care for people with diabetes, an expanded section on
diabetes care in specific populations including children and adolescents
with type 1 diabetes, and diabetes in specific settings such as hospitals,
schools and day care centers, camps and correctional institutions.

People with diabetes are two-to-four times more likely than others to
develop heart disease and are more likely to die from heart attacks than
people who don't have diabetes.  Based on recent studies including the
Collaborative Atorvastatin Diabetes Study (CARDS), revisions to the
"Standards of Medical Care for Diabetes" include recommendations on lipid
management for people with diabetes with or without overt cardiovascular
disease.  The ADA guidelines recommend the use of statins for people with
diabetes over the age of 40 who have a total cholesterol level that is
greater than or equal to 135 mg/dl.  The primary goal continues to be an
LDL<100 mg/dl. People with diabetes and overt cardiovascular disease, who
are at very high risk for further events, should be treated using a high
dose of a statin, and, in these high risk patients, a lower LDL cholesterol
goal of <70mg/dl, is an option.

Other revisions include an expanded review of Medical Nutrition Therapy to
examine more fully the role of carbohydrates in the diet of those with
diabetes and the role of lifestyle modification in obesity prevention and
management.

For more information about the ADA's new Clinical Practice Recommendations
published in the January issue of Diabetes Care, please visit
www.diabetes.org.  Diabetes Care, published by the American Diabetes
Association, is the leading peer-reviewed journal of clinical research into
the nation's fifth leading cause of death by disease.  Diabetes also is a
leading cause of heart disease and stroke, as well as the leading cause of
adult blindness, kidney failure and non-traumatic amputations.  For more
information about diabetes call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383).