First, A Summary of Diabetes in America Today

Posted on April 16th, 2010 by JimR

Shocking statistics about diabetes

I’ve been reading the latest National Diabetes Fact Sheet that summarizes statistics on matters related to diabetes and it is a shocker!

The fact sheet is produced jointly by the national diabetes associations and other organizations of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. and provides a comprehensive assessment of the impact of diabetes in the United States.

Because of the immense amount of data to collect and review it is inevitable that most of the statistics published will not include the last year or two but are mainly for a period ending in the year 2007. There is no evidence that anything regarding diabetes has improved since then so it is appropriate to use the figures available in comments on the situation in general today.

The several forms of diabetes are described below. The type-2 form of diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases. Type-2 diabetes is a disease that is signified by higher than normal blood sugar levels existing in a person’s body for an extended length of time, creating a seriously unhealthy condition that increases the risks of many complications unless the blood sugar levels are brought under control and reduced to a lower level.

In the United States and Canada there are over 25 million people already diagnosed as having diabetes and there are an estimated 6 million who have the disease but are not aware of it. As well as that, there is a condition called prediabetes.

Prediabetes is also defined by higher than normal blood sugar levels although not as high as those that constitute diabetes. As its name implies, prediabetes may lead to diabetes if its progress is allowed to worsen. In the prediabetes category there are an astounding 57 million people. In 2007 the estimated costs connected to diabetes in United States was calculated to be $218 billion.

A grim forecast for the future
Health authorities forecast that one in three children yet to be born will become diabetic. The growing incidence of diabetes represents an extreme burden on the national healthcare system in the U.S. That raises the question “How will the nation pay for it, where will the monies come from?” This will be a major cost for the Health Care Reform Bill program, recently passed into law.

Diabetes has been known for millennia, but what is it?
There are three primary forms of diabetes and some others that are less common. As mentioned above, there is also a condition recognized as prediabetes that may develop into diabetes.

No cure
It is generally accepted by the medical profession that there is no cure for diabetes and the condition must be contained and controlled within a specific tolerable range by the adoption of appropriate lifestyle changes. Those include more healthy dietary approaches that are even better if accompanied by exercise and perhaps weight loss and possibly medication to assist in controlling the levels of glucose that enter the bloodstream after eating.

But some say it IS curable
However, having said that there is no cure, I must add that there are a number of quite renowned and successful medical practitioners who insist that by adopting certain dietary approaches, usually involving a low carbohydrate intake or perhaps a vegetarian dietary regimen, the disease can be brought under control until it does not manifest itself and the diabetes will, in effect, not exist for the individual who follows and adheres to that approach.

The gestational form of diabetes, mentioned below and not very common, is a temporary diabetic condition suffered by a small percentage of pregnant women.

The three main types of diabetes are known as type-1 diabetes, type-2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes, of which type-2 is by far the most common, making up about 90 to 95 percent of all cases.

In the past, but less so nowadays, type-1 and type-2 were referred to respectively by the more descriptive names of juvenile diabetes and adult-onset diabetes.

Type-1 Diabetes
Sadly, type-1 diabetes is most often a disease that develops in childhood or in young adults, although it sometimes strikes adults. It is called an autoimmune disease that occurs when the individual’s immune system fails to function properly. The immune system is the collection of biological processes in the human body that normally protects us all against disease. But instead, in the case of type-1diabetes, the immune system actually destroys cells in an organ of the body, called the pancreas, that makes insulin. The result is that from that time on, the type-1 person must take insulin each day to stay alive.

Insulin and glucose
Without insulin, the glucose produced from the food we eat and that is needed to provide energy for all the body’s cells cannot be delivered into those cells and when that happens, life cannot survive for long. Without a source of insulin, a type-1 diabetic can fall into a life-threatening coma. A parent of a diabetic child lives with that constant fear and concern that such an event might occur.

Type-2 diabetes
The most common form of diabetes is a condition in which an above normal level of glucose exists in the blood. That can occur for more than just one reason but most likely due either to insufficient insulin being produced by the body or resistance by the cells of the body to the insulin that is being produced. And it may be a combination of both of those factors.

The role of insulin
Insulin joins with the glucose in the bloodstream and aids in the delivery of the glucose to the trillions of cells in the body where it is needed. It is the insulin’s ability to interact with the receptors that exist on the outer membrane of the cells, in a way acting like a mediator, that enable the process to take place to completion.
To illustrate, in the process, the insulin acts like a key that opens a door to a cell allowing the glucose to enter into the cell. Without that key, without insulin, the glucose cannot be absorbed. And that would lead to a dangerous life-threatening situation if not remedied promptly.

Gestational diabetes
Is a usually temporary form of the disease developed by some women, usually late in their pregnancy, who may not even be aware of it because no symptoms are exhibited. It is not common, occurring in perhaps about 5 percent or more of pregnancies but one unfavorable outlook for the mother is that there is a 40 to 60 percent chance of them later becoming full type-2 diabetics by about 5 to 10 years later.

What is prediabetes?
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), there are 57 million people in the United States who have prediabetes. People with prediabetes have higher than normal blood glucose levels but levels not high enough for a confirmed diagnosis of diabetes. In prediabetes there is an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes, and research indicates that damage to the body does occur especially in the cardiovascular system, meaning both the heart and the circulatory system, and that can lead to heart disease and stroke.

Important research relating to prediabetes
An important clinical research study called the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) showed that type-2 diabetes is preventable by adopting lifestyle changes that includes improved eating habits, adding or increasing physically active, and weight management. The weight target is to get down to a body mass index of 25 or less and to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a chart of human body weights related to height and is used by doctors to aid in determining the degree of variance, if any, of a patient’s particular readings with known acceptable index values.

At the end of this article is a link to the Body Mass Index and an explanation of how to use it.

Diabetes is not contagious, it is not a disease that others can catch but in some cases it may have a heredity genetic component so that more than one member of the family may develop the disease. But the cause is really unknown although certain factors are known to increase the possibility of developing diabetes.

The incidence of diabetes
Type-2 diabetes is especially associated with obesity and is considered to be a lifestyle disease of the developed western world associated with our generally more sedentary life. The incidence of diabetes is increasing as we, as a population, consume more readily available foods that are rich in fats and contain more calories than we need to sustain our levels of energy output.

According to data from the Multinational Project for Childhood Diabetes by the World Health Organization, type 1 diabetes occurs equally among males and females but is more common in whites than in nonwhites.

Type-1 diabetes is uncommon in most African, American Indian, and Asian populations while some countries of northern Europe, including Finland and Sweden, have high rates of type 1 diabetes. The reasons for these differences are unknown. As mentioned above, type-1 diabetes develops most often in children but can occur at any age.

Type-2 diabetes is more common in older people, and overweight people and occurs more frequently in African Americans, indigenous native Americans, and some Americans of Asian origin, and in Hawaiians and other Americans of the Pacific Islands. Also it is more common among Latin Americans, a segment of the population that is growing faster than the rest.

Follow this link for an explanation and a chart of the Body Mass Index.

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