Olympia Dukakis urges diabetes screening

NEW YORK, May 18 (UPI) -- Academy-award winning actress Olympia Dukakis said she was stunned that only 10 percent of U.S adults in Medicare take advantage of diabetes screening.

"Seven out of 10 people are age 65 and have diabetes or pre-diabetes and less than 10 percent of older adults get screened -- this statistic is staggering," Dukakis told United Press International in an interview.

"It often doesn't occur to people to ask about screening -- asking the doctor is really important -- and it is why we teamed up with Novo Nordisk to create the Web site askscreenknow.com to increase awareness."

Dukakis, in her 70s, and her husband Louis Zorich, in his 80s -- an actor best known for his role as Paul Reiser's father Burt Buchman in the former NBC series "Mad About You" -- found out at Zorich's annual diabetes screening that he had type 2 diabetes.

Both continue to work as actors.

"I really take care of myself -- I take medication, watch what I eat and stay physically active -- I recently closed in the New York play 'Uncle Vanya' and often walked to the theater -- about a 50-minute walk," Zorich told UPI.

Dukakis said she knew it was important her husband get screened because his mother and sister had diabetes.

"I was in the movie 'Steel Magnolias' and Robert Harling based it on the experience of his sister, who had type 1 diabetes and died after having a baby," Dukakis said. "I learned about diabetes from his parents."