Fighting back

AURELIUS - If the war against diabetes can be won with information, several experts on the disease gave an abundance of ammunition to local diabetics at the first Auburn Diabetes Fair.

Dr. Charles H. Keenen, the first of the fair's three featured speakers, addressed the audience in Fingerlakes Mall about the most important instrument of a diabetic's fight against the disease: insulin.

Keenen, also a diabetic, told the attendees who share his disease that any anxiety about insulin should be soothed by the certainty of its ability to aid diabetics. He used a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate precisely how the disease is caused by a decrease in the pancreas's ability to produce insulin, which alleviates high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) by absorbing and metabolizing the nutrient.