The strength to tackle diabetes

MARION VAN DIJK/The Nelson Mail

NO HOLDING BACK: Diabetes never stopped Doug Burns from taking on the world.

Relevant offers

He was a "scrawny kid" with Type 1 diabetes, but that never stopped former Mr Universe Doug Burns from taking on the world.

It's a message he will pass on to nearly 200 New Zealand young people at the Diabetes Youth conference in Nelson this weekend.

The Californian bodybuilder turned health educator says diabetes doesn't have to be a life sentence.

"If you're forced to control diabetes and that's your main objective, that's worthless. Shift the focus and say, `This is what I'm going to do, and you know what? Diabetes has to come along'."

Mr Burns was diagnosed when he was seven, Although diabetes caused a lot of difficulties for him as a child, he started competing in strength and powerlifting when he was 13, and began winning titles.

He later switched to bodybuilding, winning Southern USA, Californian and United States championships before being ultimately crowned Mr Universe in 2006.

Managing his insulin requirements with the rigours of training was a complex, finely tuned balancing act that was "incredibly difficult", he said.

"Training for a contest becomes incredibly complex. I have to chart out everything amino acids, nutrition intake, carbohydrate intake. It's a lot of management.

"But at the same time, all that has a function, and so to me it's not just management; it's managing my ability to win. You become a more effective athlete, physician, actor, or whatever your vision is."

It's a message that national Diabetes Youth president Adrian Coombes is keen to pass on to young people with the condition.

"We brought Doug over here because he's a very good role model and proves diabetes doesn't hold you back. Our motto is that kids should reach for the stars, and Doug proves that."

The conference, at the Rutherford Hotel, is hosting several overseas speakers, including American professional snowboarder Sean Busby, and Elissa Renouf, a diabetes aid entrepreneur, wife of former Brisbane Broncos rugby league player Steve Renouf and mother of four diabetic children.

The keynote speaker is eminent Auckland scientist Professor Bob Elliott, who leads a xenotransplantation programme using pig cells to stimulate insulin production in humans.

Mr Coombes said most of the young people at the conference were Type 1 sufferers, a condition that was completely different from Type 2 diabetes. He said it was a distinction that people often didn't realise. Type 2 is generally lifestyle-related and treated through exercise and diet, but Type 1 is genetic and random.

"For 98 per cent of young people diagnosed with diabetes, it's Type 1. People see diabetes as just diabetes, but they're very different."

Part of the conference's goal was instilling the knowledge that their condition wouldn't go away, he said. "There's no cure, no blame, but when you go away on holiday, diabetes goes with you. They've got to live with this condition for the rest of their lives, so the sooner we can get these kids to manage it early and well, there will be less cost on the health dollar."

  DIABETES 4

- © Fairfax NZ News