Diabetes Is Rising In America!

Diabetes, also called diabetes mellitus, is a long-term medical condition in which a person has high blood glucose (blood sugar). The condition can be due to inadequate insulin production or the body does not respond properly to insulin, or both. People with high blood glucose will experience frequent urination. They will probably become increasingly thirsty and hungry, too.

Basically, there are 3 types of diabetes, namely Type-1, Type-2, and gestational diabetes. Type-1 diabetes results from the body's failure to produce enough insulin, and it is usually diagnosed in childhood. Type-2 diabetes begins with insulin resistance (cells fail to respond to insulin properly) and progresses to a lack of insulin. It accounts for nearly 90 percent of all diabetes. The primary cause of Type-2 diabetes is excessive body weight and inadequate exercise. Gestational diabetes occurs when pregnant women without a previous history of diabetes develop a high blood glucose level.

Patients with diabetes are at a higher risk of getting other complications including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness, amputation of toes, feet or legs, and premature death. According to American Diabetes Association, diabetes is responsible for more than 71,000 deaths a year.

Over 382 million people throughout the world were estimated to have diabetes in 2013. It also seems that there is a growing number of Americans have diabetes.

Data from the 2014’s National Diabetes Statistics Report, which was jointly produced by CDC and other organizations and released on June 10, 2014, revealed that more than 29 million Americans adults have diabetes in 2012 and about 25 percent of them do not even realize it. The figure, compared to 26 million in 2010, represents more than 9 percent of the American population. In the meantime, another 86 million, about a third of the adult population are at risk of getting diabetes. Their blood sugar levels are high enough to be marked as pre-diabetic and the cells in their body are becoming resistant to insulin.

The estimates were based on a national sample of Americans, who were asked whether they had been diagnosed with diabetes and who also gave blood samples. They were not asked specifically about what type of diabetes they had, but the vast majority had Type-2 diabetes.

There is no doubt that diabetes is costly in both human and economic terms. The total cost of diabetes in 2012 was 245 billion: $176 billion for direct medical costs and $69 billion in reduced productivity. Hence there is urgency for the government and health organizations to take swift action to effectively treat and prevent diabetes.