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Diabetes Expo Today

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TBO.com staff report

Published: October 6, 2007

The Tampa Bay Diabetes Expo is under way today at the Tampa Convention Center today, offering free health screenings, cooking demonstrations, giveaways and advice about living with a disease that has become the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.

Admission is free. The event runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the convention center, 333 South Franklin Street. Chief sponsors include the American Diabetes Association.

More than 6 percent of Americans have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measured by the number of people diagnosed with diabetes by their doctors, Florida has a higher percentage of diabetes patients than the country as a whole – 8.8 percent compared to 7.3 percent, CDC statistics show.

Diabetes is a failure of the body to produce the chemical insulin, which is vital in converting sugar from food into substances the body can use. Diabetes can cause serious health complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and lower-extremity amputations. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

For more information on Diabetes Expo, and for help living with the disease, visit (link here) www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents...

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