By LINDA MAJOR

Bahamas Information Services

(Note: This is the first of two articles on diabetes. World Diabetes Day

was observed November 14.)

As a world-class track and field athlete, Bahamian record holder in the shot put and discus, Commonwealth Games medalist and an Olympian, Bradley Cooper was in top physical shape. Yet in July, 1990, while still actively representing his country in track and field, it began.

There was frequent urination as well as thirst, hunger and also weight loss.

Says Mr. Cooper: "When I told my mother what was happening, she suggested I go and see a doctor. When I went to see the doctor they ran the test on me and I was hospitalized for five days."

At 33, Mr. Cooper, who had previously been diagnosed as hypertensive, was now a diabetic.

"I cried," he says; "it was a shock."

He was devastated, but he did not ignore the problem. Instead, he set out

to get as much information as he could about the disease.

"Prior to this," he says, "my grandfather had died of a combination of

diabetes and cancer, and a few of my uncles and aunts had it (diabetes) at

that time.

"Everyone knew it was in the family, but at the time I think parents or families did not realize the significance of it. The only thing they knew was that 'it passed a generationâ or I have a touch of diabetesâ or you should be doing this because there is a possible chance of your having diabetes'. They did not have the information like we have it now."

Mr. Cooper's search for information led him to the Bahamas Diabetes Association. He was asked to join, and three to four years later he become

one of its executives. Today, he is president.

Diabetes, he says, does not discriminate; it can hit anybody at any time.

Several years after he was diagnosed, Mr. Cooper's mother developed diabetes. She has Type 2 diabetes, and needs only tablets to regulate her

insulin, but her son, as a Type 1 diabetic, is insulin-dependent.

Type1 diabetes most frequently affects children and adolescents, and accounts for approximately five to 10 per cent of all diabetes, says the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 90 to 95 per cent of all diabetes, and most often occurs in

adults, although it is now affecting children and young adults to a greater

extent, according to the IDF.

"We also realize that there is more of a prevalence of diabetes in the country of Type II thatâs hitting our children because of their eating habits and their diets," says Mr. Cooper. "Most of us, as parents, prefer to buy the cheapest drink we can find in the shop, or chips to give our kids rather than giving them a healthy meal."

As an athlete, Mr. Cooper ate "anything and everything."

He says: "Sometimes when I was competing, I would go with as much as two Big Macs, two large fries and two shakes or a large pizza and four Cokes. As far as I was concerned, that's the food I needed to eat to be strong. I like chocolates. And when we used to travel I had four to five bars of chocolate, not realizing all that was having an effect on my life."

At first, after being diagnosed, Mr. Cooper was very strict with his diet

and exercise, but as time went on he "slackened up" a bit.

"You can eat practically anything," he says; "it's just the amount that is

important with diabetes. A typical Bahamian breakfast, you'd say, will be

tuna and grits or corned beef and grits. It's all right to have the tuna and grits if you don't have all the mayonnaise and butter and all the grease, and if you stick with the one pot spoon of grits."

For Mr. Cooper, a typical day is two insulin injections, tablets to enhance the insulin and vitamins. Exercise is a must for him also, but it is difficult for him "because after competing for over 26 years or so, I hate exercise now. I even hate to think about getting up to exercise. I think that's been my handicap over the last two years. I am just tired of exercise, so what I would do — sometimes I would just get up and walk around campus for about five or 10 minutes, just to keep things circulating. Or on the weekends I would try to go into the yard and clean up the yard or I'll try to clean up around the house just to get the exercise in something different than going out there and physically walking or running."

Living as a diabetic is not easy, and diabetes is "a very expensive ordeal,"

says Mr. Cooper. It could cost from $200 to $400 per month just for

medicines, and this does not account for the cost of tests and doctor visits. With diabetes comes hypertension, he says, and one also has to treat that.

"All Bahamians should be tested once a year, because of the 12 per cent who are known diabetics — you will find that there is another 6 per cent who don't know," Mr. Cooper says. "So you are looking at 15 to 20 per cent of the population who are diabetics. By the year 2020 we are looking at the possibility of 25 per cent of the world population being affected with

diabetes, and our region (North American region) is high; our prevalence is

like15 to 17 per cent. When the Ministry of Health and Environmental Services did their survey the other day we found 4,000 cases in The Bahamas, and that's only the public clinics, not the private clinics; we don't have their numbers yet. When you look at that as a population, that is very high for us. If you count in the persons who go to Doctors Hospital, the walk-in clinics and those who refuse to go to doctors, you may have another 4,000 out there.

"I want to encourage the family members and persons who know they have it or have family members who have it — they need to be more supportive in their role as family members in watching them with their diets. And also

employers who give diabetics a hard time on their job must realize that as

diabetics, some days you're up and some days you're down and some days you just don't feel like coming in to work."

Mr. Cooper does not allow diabetes to affect his family life; in fact, he

has become more involved in household chores, both indoors and outdoors, as a result of his diabetes. He was diagnosed the same year he was married,

and now, as the father of two children, he makes sure to educate them about

the threat of diabetes.

"I tell them to be careful and to watch me," he says. "I tell them, 'You

don't want to be doing what I am doing.' I have them there, and they watch

me give myself injections and test blood and retest every so often. That is

about all you can do because when they get in school you don't know what

they get in their mouths. You just have to advise them to stay away from

certain things and say 'it's up to you. If you want to stick yourself with

needles, it's up to you'."

But life goes on, and Mr. Cooper, though retired as an athlete since 1996,

is still coaching and, after publishing his first book, "Discus Throwing

Made Easy," is looking forward to more writing and getting the message on

diabetes to more Bahamians.

Caption:BRADLEY COOPER

...diagnosed with diabetes in 1990

Posted: Tuesday November 18, 2003