Kari Turner checks her blood sugar Thursday morning at her home. Turner, 16, who will participate in the Watermelon Stampede, was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago. Beth Van Zandt/Muscatine Journal

MUSCATINE, Iowa - With today's medical advances, there's no reason one can't live a normal life with diabetes, say local students with the disease. But ignorance can still be annoying.

Kari Turner, 16, who'll be a junior at Muscatine High School this fall, said diabetes hasn't kept her from competing on the tennis team, or singing in choir, or serving as president of the junior class.

"I can keep it under control pretty easily," Turner said. "Medicines just keep getting better and better, so hopefully by the time I'm older, they should have a cure for it or it'll be easy to take care of."

But Turner - who suffers from Type 1, or juvenile diabetes - would still like it if people understood the disease a little better.

"Most people get the types of diabetes confused," she said. "Most people, when I tell them I'm diabetic they say, ‘you don't look obese.'"

Turner and several other students will be running in the 28th annual Watermelon Stampede, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 19-20, to help raise money to fight diabetes. And fellow racers agree that most people just don't understand the disease.

There are two major types of diabetes: Type 1, which is an auto-immune-related disease and usually affects people between the ages of 5-20, stopping insulin production; and Type 2, adult onset diabetes, which represents more than 80 percent of all diabetes cases.

Type 2 diabetes rates in the United States have risen at a rate which many doctors have called alarming in recent years, and it is typically related to lifestyle, especially the type of diet and amount of exercise.

Joe Manriquez, now 24 and in his last year at the University of Iowa school of law, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 10 years old, on vacation in Minnesota with his family. His parents had him tested after noticing his weight loss and eating habits.

Manriquez, a Muscatine native, used to have his food measured to the gram and received a strictly regimented series of shots daily to manage his diabetes. But with medical advances and time-release insulin, his schedule isn't so rigid.

"It teaches you perseverance," he said. "Everybody who's had an adversity that they face, anyone who's experienced a disease or a hardship, at one point in your life it might be tough to manage but you persevere."

Manriquez also believes diabetes is a misunderstood disease, and that much of that misunderstanding was the result of less advanced medicine used in the past.

"The tests used to be so inconsistent. Now we have tests where you know in five seconds where your insulin is," he said. "For a lot of older people, it was much tougher to manage diabetes, and it got a bad rap because it wasn't as easy as it is now."

Manriquez will also be running in the Watermelon Stampede.

This is the first year the Watermelon Stampede will be affiliated with the fight against diabetes, with the races intended to raise public awareness and money for research.

Like Turner, diabetes hasn't kept Manriquez from being active - he exercises regularly and was a cross country competitor in high school. It also hasn't stopped Troy Grady from competing on the Muscatine High School football team.

Grady, 15, a Type 1 diabetic, said he keeps snacks handy before a game to keep his insulin levels from getting too low, but otherwise it hasn't put him in much trouble. As long as he lets people know he has it.

"You have to be more aware when you play sports, and you have to tell your boss and everyone you know so that if you pass out, they know what to do," said Grady, who'll also be in this year's Watermelon Stampede. "You have to tell pretty much everybody."

Manriquez says that having an active lifestyle helps people manage diabetes more effectively.

"I think the real key to managing diabetes is knowing your body and being fairly consistent," he said, adding that he lifts weights, does cardiovascular exercise and watches his diet closely.

"Not just because it's specific to being diabetic but because it's specific to being a metabolic disease. Just by being healthy, you're going to burn the carbohydrates you eat more efficiently."

Contact Peter Rugg at: 563-263-2331 Ext. 322 orpeter.rugg@muscatinejournal.com

Watermelon Stampede

The two races will be held Friday and Saturday, Aug. 19-20.

First Event

What: Watermelon Stampede Kids Run to Cure Diabetes, for ages 12 and under.

Where: Muscatine High School Track, 2705 Cedar St.

When: 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19

Entry fee: $7, or $10 after Aug. 16.

Registration forms: Muscatine Community Y, Curves, Muscatine Parks and Recreation Department, Supreme Fitness, Dell Wagner at 5653-263-7282, or online at www.machlink.net\~llferris\

Late Registration: 5-6 p.m. on race day

Second Event

What: Watermelon Stampede Against Diabetes, open to all ages.

When: 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 20

Where: First Baptist Church, 3003, Mulberry Ave.

Entry Fee: $12, or $15 after Aug. 16.

Registration Forms: Muscatine Community Y, Curves, Muscatine Parks and Recreation Department, Supreme Fitness, Dell Wagner at 563-263-7282, or online at www.machlink.net\~llferris\

Late Registration: 7-7:45 a.m. on race day