NEW HOPE FOR GASTROPARESIS

One of the complications of diabetes is autonomic neuropathy, damage to the central nervous system.� The body's autonomic nerves control basic functions, like heart rate and digestion.� When autonomic neuropathy affects digestion, the condition is called gastroparesis.

Symptoms of gastroparesis may range from early fullness and lack of appetite to nausea, vomiting and stomach pain.� Peristalsis, the churning movement of the stomach, is intermittent, or ceases outright, so sufferers may vomit up food eaten days before--and find it almost undigested.� In such circumstances diabetes control, not to mention quality of life, can become very difficult.

In April, 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved MedTronic Corp.'s Enterra implant, to control gastroparesis.� The Enterra is a small electronic "neurostimulator," much like a heart pacemaker, with electrodes implanted into the stomach muscle.� The theory is that the small shocks (one every six seconds) delivered onto the stomach, stimulate nerves lining the stomach that control digestion.

Both the researchers and the FDA state the theory is not proved, and the completed clinicals have been small--33 people--but the device seems to work, so the FDA offered a special "Humane Treatment" review, and accepted the device.

Most diabetic gastroparesis is not severe enough to warrant such a device.� The researchers estimate up to 100,000 people may suffer measurable gastroparesis, but in most cases it is controllable by better diabetes control, special diet, and medications.� The FDA estimates that perhaps 400 people per year do not respond to medications, and might benefit from the Enterra.

For more information, have your physician contact:� MedTronic Corp., 7000 Central Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55432; telephone:� 1-800-664-5111, extension 3000; website: http://www.medtronic.com

Graphic:� Blind Man walking with cane and briefcase

If you or a friend would like to remember the Diabetes Action Network of the National Federation of the Blind in your will, you can do so by employing the following language:

"I give, devise, and bequeath unto the Diabetics Action Network of the National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation, the sum of $_______________" (or "_______________ percent of my net estate" or "the following stocks and bonds:____________________") to be used for its worthy purposes on behalf of blind persons."