From July 20 to 24, campers aged eight to 17 will focus on one sport − soccer, basketball or tennis – and receive instruction from a team of elite-level coaches and interuniversity athletes. All instruction will take place within York’s state-of-the-art Sport and Recreation facilities with support from an experienced clinical diabetes team.

Participants’ blood glucose levels will be monitored throughout each day using new technology offered by Medtronic Canada and participants will learn strategies to modify insulin and carbohydrate intake using guidelines published by the International Society of Paediatric Diabetes.

Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes rates are on the rise in Canada and evidence is mounting that regular exercise should be at the cornerstone of care for both forms of the disease. For children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes involved in sport, managing their diabetes is particularly challenging.

“A fear of low blood sugar is a major barrier to sport participation for many of these kids and their parents,” said Michael Riddell, a world renowned diabetes and exercise physiologist and associate professor at York’s Faculty of Health. “There is a great need to educate families how exercise can be used to help manage the disease.”

Riddell, himself diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 15, designed the camp based on his experiences developing The Diabetes Training Camp in the U.S.  His latest review article in the July issue of the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology discusses the role of glucose monitoring using new technologies during exercise and sport in adult athletes with Type 1 diabetes.

The Diabetes Sports Camp is part of York’s new Physical Activity and Diabetes (PAD) initiative that will train health professionals in the areas of exercise physiology and behavior change while serving a growing community need to help young people to manage their disease. 

The centre will also house a Diabetes Clinic for exercise evaluation and lifestyle counseling for parents and children in the community and a Diabetes Research Lab that will be the lone Canadian centre of expertise on the effectiveness and impact of exercise intervention on diabetes.

For more information on the camp visit: www.yorku.ca/mriddell/

What:   Diabetes Sports Camp

Who:    Professor Michael Riddell, diabetes expert, and camp participants will be available for interviews during the week.

When:   Monday, July 20 to Friday, July 24 from 9am to 4pm.

Where:  York University’s Keele campus.

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as more than 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 26 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
 

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For further information, please contact:

Killeen Kelly, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22938 / killeenk@yorku.