Many statistics played across the screen in the Conference Room at Wayne Memorial Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, but one in particular sticks out.

“Of the children born in America in 2000, one in three will develop diabetes in their lifetime.”

Grim and definitive, these words were spoken by Ann Albright, Director of the Division of Diabetes Translation for the CDC. The talk she presented to the assembled health professionals at the hospital had a similar bald title; “Diabetes: A Big Public Health Problem.”

“From the time you wake up today to when you wake up tomorrow, there will be almost 4,000 new cases of diabetes diagnosed,” Albright said. “There will be over 600 deaths, over 200 amputations, over 100 cases of kidney failure.”

The facts she presented may have been alarming, but for Albright they weren’t the end of the story. They were the beginning.

“I was diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes more than 40 years ago. And back then, you got your insulin, and if you got one shot a day you were lucky. You’d have this regimented eating and health plan where you had to eat these very specific foods at specific times, and the talk in the health industry was always ‘Why don’t people manage their diabetes?!’ As if it were a surprise.”

This fundamental discrepancy, between the needs of those who live with diabetes and the health care professionals who treat them, are the reason the  Division of Diabetes Translation is so important.

“The DDT’s mission is to eliminate the preventable burden of diabetes through leadership, research, programs, and policies that translate science into practice. I remember the first time I heard that mission statement, I thought, ‘This rocks!’”

But the mission hasn’t always been easy. One of the points Albright kept revisiting was that both the incidence and prevalence of diabetes in the general population were growing exponentially; more new cases of diabetes are diagnosed every year, and those living with diabetes remain in the population longer. Some of the reasons for that increase are, surprisingly, positive; Albright said the higher incidence proved that the diagnostic models for diabetes are being improved and that more people are being screened and diagnosed early.

But, overwhelmingly, the growth in Type II (lifestyle-derived) diabetes can be linked to the growing epidemic of obesity currently plaguing the US.

“I have a map I like to use, it shows two dots in Manhattan and Southern California,” Albright said. “That’s probably the only two places in America where the majority of people are too skinny. In the rest of the country, the majority is too fat. And that’s not a cosmetic distinction; we’re talking about health here.”

The problem is, Albright continued, getting the message of making healthy choices out to people isn’t always easy.

“I remember we did a study in East Harlem, where we tried to teach people about good eating habits. The neighborhood we were in, there was a bodega on every corner selling lottery tickets, liquor, and cigarettes but next to nowhere that had fresh fruits and vegetables. And when you did find them, they were very expensive.”

Regional distinctions like this can play an important role in diabetes management, Albright says, because the disease is more prevalent in certain ethnic populations than others.

“Native Americans are the most susceptible to Type II Diabetes, with African Americans, Hispanics, and Non-Hispanic Whites following,” she said. “That’s why we work with members of the communities themselves to prepare educational materials targeted to their needs. In the state of California, for example, we prepare information in 38 different languages.”

The lessons learned in working in all those different communities, she said, translate to managing the growing diabetes problem right in our own backyard.

“When we did a study examining the efficacy of managing diabetes with a healthy lifestyle as opposed to drugs, it was almost twice as successful,” she said. “And the people who know the best how to target the needs of a community are the people who live there, work there, send their kids to the schools and worship. You have to educate the community, as well as the healthcare industry.”