Bill Graves

Medical experts meeting at the NIH over the next three days are going to try to reach a consensus on whether to shift to a different testing method for gestational diabetes. If they decide to make the shift, the prevalence of gestational diabetes in U.S. pregnancies can be expected to double. 

Doctors are debating whether to lower the blood-sugar threshold for determining whether a woman has with gestational diabetes. If that happens the number of pregnant women treated for gestational diabetes could more than double.

    The fifth and final story in my series, "Invisible Nations, Enduring Ills," on health disparities affecting Native Americans in the Portland area ran today on the front page of The Sunday Oregonian. Today's story focuses on the dramatic success and efficiency of an innovative Native American health organization in Anchorage, Alaska, called...

Candida KingBird, 38, has lived a decade with diabetes and has five children, the last of whom nearly died from problems related to the disease after a cesarean section. The fourth part of my series on health disparities affecting Native Americans in Portland, Ore., tracks her journey through a difficulty, risky sixth pregnancy.

From the start, I decided I would take as much time as I possibly could – that is the whole year – to complete my project on health disparities affecting Native Americans in the Portland area. I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could not only about Native health, but also about Native cultures.

<p>Native Americans have the highest diabetes rate among all racial and ethnic groups in America and offer a preview of where the rest of the country is headed. They also have found ways to keep the disease at bay.</p>