Bermudians should follow new American guidelines advising adults in their forties be tested for diabetes, a local diabetes official revealed. Last week the US endorsed guidelines recommended for the first time that all adults be tested for diabetes by the age 45 in a bid to catch the disease before it began its insidious destruction.

Diabetes -- a major problem on the Island -- is when the body cannot properly convert sugar and starch. It is due to a deficiency in the production or effectiveness of the hormone insulin. It can lead to severe health problems.

The American guidelines, written by an international panel of experts, also lowered the cutoff for people to be declared diabetics and changed the way the disease will be classified.

The goal is to get unknown diabetics on diets, exercise programmes and if necessary drug treatment before complications set in which could effect their eye sight, heart, kidneys and nerves.

The recommended test, for detecting the disease was the fasting plasmalucose test. It is a simple blood test which requires people not to eat for eight hours before hand.

Debbie Jones of the Diabetes Centre at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital attended the meeting of the American Diabetes Association where the new guidelines were announced.

At the meeting the results of the 1996 Bermuda Diabetes Epidemiology Project were also presented.

The first ever epidemiology study on diabetes in Bermuda, which showed that diabetes was a common health problem in Bermuda also uncovered: 10.7 percent of adult Bermudians or one in nine adults, over the age of 18-years have diabetes; In the 65 plus age group, almost one in three of females and one in five of males have diabetes; For every two adults in Bermuda with diabetes, there was one who had diabetes and did not know about it; Some 1066 locals interviewed for the study and 999 completing both an interview and clinic visits under the guise of study director Dr. Meng Hee Tan.

Noting Bermuda's high incidents of diabetes -- 18 percent higher than the US or Canada -- Ms Jones said she hoped the new US guidelines would be adopted locally especially since they will be adopted, in a slightly different form, by the World Health Organisation later this year.

Among the new American guidelines: Every adult should have a diabetes test every three years starting at 45 and those who have a high reading should have the test repeated on another day; Those at a higher than usual risk may need to be tested earlier or more often.

This included American Indians, blacks, Asians, Hispanics and anyone who was overweight or had high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a strong family history of the disease; The cutoff for declaring someone diabetic should be lowered from the current 140 milligrams of glucose per decilitre of blood plasma to 126; Doctors should abandon the categories of insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Insulin-dependent, which once was called juvenile diabetes, should be termed type 1. Non-insulin-dependent, traditionally known as adult-onset diabetes, should be called type 2; and Contrary to earlier recommendations, pregnant women do not need to be tested routinely if they are white, under 25, of normal size and have no close family members with the disease.

"We would like everyone, when they go to their doctor, to get a blood sugar test if they are 45 and older,'' Ms Jones said. "And if they are under 45 and at a high risk because it runs in their family or they are overweight they should get tested.

"If people are tested early, we can get them to start doing things that will control their diabetes. The whole idea is that the sooner you identify a diabetic, the sooner you can get that person to make changes that will prevent the onset of complications. We want to prevent the complications.''