Recent Statistics on Diabetes and Prediabetes, Serious Disease Conditions Characterized by Higher than Normal Blood Sugar Levels
Let’s be clear at the beginning, diabetes, if uncontrolled, is a terrible disease — and sometimes a killer.
Diabetes is a disease that has many other associated conditions of possible health complications, some of which are life-threatening. And it affects over 25 million Americans, adults and children, many of whom don’t even know they have diabetes — or the other related condition called prediabetes.
Update on blood sugar diseases
Released in January 2011, updated from the 2007 statistics previously available from the American Diabetes Association, is the Data from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet that provides the current and alarming information relating to the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes in the United States.
And alarming it really is. Diabetes has been, for several years now, referred to as a growing epidemic — growing to the extent that it could, in a few years overwhelm the health care budget.
Even though diabetes, especially the type-2 version, is being increasingly diagnosed, there are still an estimated 6 millions of Americans who are unaware they have the disease and there are another 79 million people — an almost unbelievable number — who are estimated to have the related high blood sugar levels condition known as Prediabetes.
Most people who become type-2 diabetics usually pass through a prior period where they have the pre-diabetic condition now referred to in the medical profession as “prediabetes”—in which higher than normal blood sugars exist but they are not yet sufficiently high to be diagnosed as diabetes proper.
It’s not too late to avoid the dangers of prediabetes or to prevent diabetes developing
Research shows that long-term damage to organs of the body can occur even in prediabetes, especially concerning the heart and blood circulation systems. There is no cure for diabetes but although prediabetes is also a serious condition, fortunately it can be treated and possible reversed — according to a recent research study called the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP).
That study showed that type-2 diabetes, the type that is present in 90 percent or more of all diabetes cases, can be prevented if changes are made to the diet — a poor diet is the cause of most conditions of being overweight, the common denominator in most occurences of diabetes. There is usually also a need to increase the level of physical activity. The study shows it works, and that blood glucose levels can maybe taken back to the normal range.
The complications of diabetes
There are other articles on this website that point out the dire consequences that can develop from diabetes if not adequately treated and brought under control, but I will just provide a reminder here that diabetes is the biggest cause that leads to heart disease in Americans. Adults with diabetes die of heart disease by 2 to 4 times more than do adults who are free from diabetes. And it’s similarly for stroke, the risk for stroke is 2 to 4 times higher for the diabetic than for the non-diabetic.
When you have diabetes, it means your blood sugar levels are too high. If left untreated or if blood sugars get out of control for an extended length of time, problems can develop in other body functions, such as kidneys, nerves, feet, and eyes. Other complications that can develop from diabetes include skin problems, digestive problems, teeth and gum problems and in men, sexual dysfunction.
Afterthoughts, with regret
When you have diabetes its too late to prevent it, if only you had known when you had the prediabetic condition — and the seriousness and diminished quality of life that awaited — and when something could still have been done to avoid it.
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