Singer Patti LaBelle headlined a lecture on diabetes February 26, 2007 at the Hippodrome Theatre in West Baltimore, sharing her experience of what it's like to live with the disease. Diagnosed only after collapsing onstage, Ms. LaBelle encouraged the audience to get tested for diabetes and to learn the best ways to live – and thrive – if they are found to have the disease.

Ms. LaBelle's talk was the first of three bicentennial lectures being presented in 2007 in honor of the University of Maryland's 200^th anniversary. Titled "Perspectives on Diabetes: The Historian, The Physician, The Patient", the evening was a public service forum sponsored by the University of Maryland Medical Center, the University of Maryland Medical System and the Joslin Diabetes Center, with additional support from the Dr. Charles Getz Memorial Lecture Fund – Medicine. Television news correspondent Dr. Bob Arnot hosted the forum. He also filled in for historian Richard Bliss, MD – who  had to bow out due to a medical emergency – speaking about the devastating history of diabetes and the hope brought about by the discovery of insulin in 1921.

The other speakers were:

• E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, dean of the School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore: He talked about diabetes during pregnancy and the steps women can take to try to avoid the complications and birth defects that can be a result of this condition.
• Alan Shuldiner, MD, head of the division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition in the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine:  Dr. Shuldiner is heading up a study among the Old Order Amish, a genetically homogenous people, in hopes of isolating the genes that cause Type 2 diabetes. He and his colleagues have already identified regions on chromosomes that likely harbor genes for the disease.
• Stephen Bartlett, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine: Dr. Bartlett talked about the amazing possibilities of surgery in treating diabetes, including pancreas transplants that could help diabetics eliminate the need for daily insulin. The University of Maryland Medical Center is third-highest in the nation when it comes to the number of these operations it's performed, having done more than 700.
• James Shapiro, MD, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Dr. Shapiro trained with Dr. Bartlett at the University of Maryland. He now heads a well-known clinical trial in Canada studying the effects of islet-cell transplantation in diabetic patients.

The audience made it quite clear that Ms. LaBelle was the one they came to see, however, and she did not disappoint. She was quick with a joke (referring to herself as a "divabetic" not a diabetic) and told humorous stories about trying to get friends to inject her insulin for her and her failed attempts to discretely take her insulin shots while on an airplane. However, she also stressed the seriousness of the disease, recalling how her mother lost first her legs and then her life to diabetes.

Ms. LaBelle encouraged the diabetics in the audience not to be ashamed to tell others about their illness. She also stressed the importance of lifestyle changes, although she admitted that it took her awhile to take those steps herself. "I was frying up the chicken, eating the macaroni and cheese with the eight different kinds of cheeses," she says. It took the death of close friend Luther Vandross to "finally make me see I really needed to take care of myself. Because you never know what's going to happen. You never know."

The next bicentennial lecture will be April 26, 2007 at the Hippodrome Theater. It will  focus on the topic of leadership and will feature recently elected Baseball Hall of Fame member Cal Ripken Jr. Admission is free, but tickets are required. To get yours, call the Bicentennial Office at (410) 706-2007.