document: Inside a small motor home , Joanne Pierluissi raised her sleeve as nurse Mary Perez inserted a needle into the vein above her forearm , drawing blood into a tube for a diabetes test . As her daughters watched , Pierluissi , 24 , said it was for them , as much as for herself , that she agreed to be tested for the deadly killer of Hispanics . `` I was concerned because they said an aunt of mine had it and I just wanted to come for the checkup . All of our family is going to go through the program to make sure that if we have it that we 'll do something about it . '' Twelve million Americans have some form of diabetes , but it is most prevalent among minorities , especially Native Americans , blacks and Hispanics . Hispanics are three times as likely to develop diabetes as the general population , and 40 percent of the 700,000 victims in Texas are Mexican-American . More than 150,000 Americans die from diabetes each year ; another 150,000 deaths are diabetes-related , according to the American Diabetes Association . No one really knows what sparks it , but researchers believe Hispanics could hold the key . San Antonio , the nation 's ninth largest city , with a population that is 50 percent Hispanic , is becoming the base for diabetes studies . Researchers take a customized mobile home to neighborhoods to randomly check Hispanics and Anglos for the disease , which deprives the body of insulin and can lead to complications affecting the heart , kidneys , eyes and nerves . San Antonio 's Hispanic makeup led Dr. Ralph DeFronzo to abandon his prestigious position as a Yale University diabetes researcher and persuade his four-member team to relocate to the University of Texas Health Science Center . An epidemiologist at the center , Dr. Michael Stern , has devoted 10 years to studying Hispanic diabetes and led the grassroots study of Type II diabetes . Type II , the most common form , develops mostly in obese adults over 40 who also may have a family history of the disease . In obese diabetics , the body has too much insulin because it is burning more fats than sugars . Type I diabetes usually develops among adolescents and requires that they have daily injections of insulin . Stern said family studies of diabetic patients are brining him closer to finding the gene that triggers the disease . A genetic marker might identify people who are susceptible , which could lead to a screening test , he said . `` Then you could go out and zero in on the genetic susceptibles and you can be more intense on your recommendations to them and you could also study that group . '' Stern believes if people exercised more and ate less of the fat-saturated foods common to the diets of low-income Hispanics , fewer would get the disease . `` We use the term double jeopardy for Mexican-Americans , '' he said . `` We do n't know why , when they get diabetes , they have a more severe form of the disease _ whether it 's a biological difference or is it that they are not getting as good medical care . `` But the interesting thing is that upper-income Mexican-Americans do not have the same risk as low-income Mexican-Americans . It may be that the gene is there , but for some reason it may not be expressed in the upper-income Mexican-Americans . `` Also , Mexican-Americans tend to have more body fat in their upper torso and we can see that as related to diabetes . '' Between 1979 and 1988 , Stern and his staff studied more than 5,000 people and found that 387 of 2,905 Hispanics had the disease , or 13.3 percent , compared to only 87 of 1,780 Anglos , or 4.8 percent . Researchers believe that poor Hispanics ' diets of cheap , processed foods , lack of exercise and infrequent medical attention _ either due to poverty or a cultural bias against doctors _ increases their risk of acquiring diabetes . The study is in its follow-up stage , to see if diagnosed diabetes patients have changed their lifestyle and have sought medical care . Teresa Castro , 54 , whose diabetic husband died at age 37 , went through the screening eight years ago . She was told that because of her weight , 254 pounds , she had hypertension and was at risk of diabetes . Doctors put her on a strict , low-fat diet and she lost 26 pounds . `` I went to the screening because they called and said it was free . That 's why I went to it , because being poor I could n't afford to go to the doctor for this type of checkup , '' she said . `` My mother has diabetes and they tell me I might have diabetes , too , but I do n't know too much about it . `` I feel OK , but they tell me that one year you can be OK and the next year , it can be totally different . '' DeFronzo , who in 1988 was chosen the top diabetes investigator by Canadian and Japanese diabetes associations , says his unit at the Health Science Center will try to use many of Stern 's patients for research . That will include work for Lipha Chemicals , which makes an anti-diabetic drug called metaforim that improves the body 's ability to respond to insulin . `` The problem with Type II diabetics is not that they do n't make enough insulin ; they do n't respond to the insulin , '' DeFronzo said . `` What we 'd like to do is make them more responsive and this drug will do that . '' The drug is widely used in Europe , Canada and Mexico and should be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in several years for U.S. use , he said . Educating elementary-school-age children about healthy diets would help reduce the number of diabetes cases , DeFronzo said . `` If you have a 65-year-old mother who weighs 220 pounds and you tell her to go out and jog five miles Monday , Wednesday and Friday , she is going to laugh at you . `` So you have to design an exercise program that is compatible with the patient 's lifestyle and it is something they can do . ''
extractive_keyphrases: hispanic diabetes diabetes studies diabetes test minorities american diabetes association obese diabetics diabetic patients hispanics type ii diabetes insulin
abstractive_keyphrases: anti-diabetic drug