AUBURN - More than 100 people gathered Saturday at the Springside Inn to learn about the realities of living with diabetes.

The program, titled "Caring for the Diabetic Body - Inside and Out," featured Auburn Memorial Hospital's Dr. Jeffrey LaDuca, a dermatologist, and Melissa Entenmann, a dietitian and certified diabetes educator who is director of the hospital's education center.

The event was sponsored by the Cayuga County Diabetes Coalition, along with several vendors. This is the third year for the program.

Robert Saltzman, a sales representative for Bayer Diagnostics, said that this event had a bigger crowd than many similar programs that he attends.

"The turnout was excellent," he said. "At a lot of these events that we help sponsor, you get 20, 25 people. They had 90 people signed up for this event and I think they got more. They always have a great turnout for the community."

He displayed and discussed a pair of blood glucose meters, the Ascensia Contour and the Ascensia Breeze. Both are meters allow patients to self-test themselves so they can get their blood glucose levels.

Entenmann said the luncheon is about more than listening to lectures on various topics of diabetes.

"Part of it is, they can also peruse the information at tables from different vendors who have products for diabetes care," she said.

Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates in 2000, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That year, there were 69,301 death certificates in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death. Altogether, diabetes contributed to 213,062 deaths.

Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about two times that of people without the disease.

LaDuca, an expert on human skin, said that skin is the biggest human organ and keeping it healthy is the first step in staying healthy.

"So keep it in tip-top form," he said. "The skin is really the most important. A third of people with diabetes will have a skin disorder caused or affected by diabetes at some point in their life."

Both LaDuca and Entenmann stressed that people, especially diabetics, should take care of their feet.

"Irish Spring is probably the worst soap," said LaDuca. "Use your moisturizers. Wash things out. Keep things clean and dry. Take good care of your feet. Check them everyday. Look for cuts. Do a good job about trimming your nails or have somebody do it for you."

Irish Spring, he said, dries out the skin, which make it more susceptible to injury.

Staff writer Joey West can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or joey.west@lee.net