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Diabetes
What is Diabetes?*
Diabetes is a disease in which the body has a shortage of insulin or a decreased ability to use insulin, a hormone that allows glucose (sugar) to enter cells and be converted to energy. When diabetes is not controlled, glucose and fats remain in the blood and, over time, damage vital organs.
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Type 1 diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, although the disease can appear at any age. Type 1 may be autoimmune, genetic, and/or environmental. There is no known way to prevent this type of diabetes.
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Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and physical inactivity, accounts for 90%–95% of diabetes cases and most often appears in people older than 40. Type 2 is associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism, physical inactivity, race, and ethnicity. Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, although still rare, is being diagnosed more frequently among American Indians, African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Asian/Pacific Islanders.
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Prediabetes is a condition in which individuals have blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. An estimated 57 million American adults had prediabetes in 2007. People with this condition have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
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Gestational diabetes is a form of glucose intolerance diagnosed during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes occurs more frequently among African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and American Indians. It is also more common among obese women and women with a family history of diabetes. During pregnancy, gestational diabetes requires treatment to normalize maternal blood glucose levels to avoid complications in the infant. Immediately after pregnancy, 5% to 10% of women with gestational diabetes are found to have type 2 diabetes. Women who have had gestational diabetes have a 40% to 60% chance of developing diabetes in the next 5–10 years.
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Other types of diabetes result from specific genetic conditions (such as maturity-onset diabetes of youth), surgery, medications, infections, pancreatic disease, and other illnesses. Other types of diabetes account for 1% to 5% of all diagnosed cases.
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Diabetes Is Costly
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Total costs (direct and indirect) of diabetes: $174 billion.
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Direct medical costs: $116 billion.
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Indirect costs (related to disability, work loss, premature death): $58 billion.
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People with diagnosed diabetes have medical expenditures that are about 2.3 times higher than medical expenditures for people without diabetes.
Diabetes Is Preventable and Controllable
Recent studies show that lifestyle changes can prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes among those at high risk.
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For those with prediabetes, lifestyle changes, including at least 7% weight loss and at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week, can reduce the onset of type 2 diabetes by 58%.
Disability and premature death are not inevitable consequences of diabetes. Working together, people with diabetes, their support network, and their health care providers can reduce the occurrence of premature death and disability by controlling blood glucose, blood pressure and blood lipids, and by receiving other preventive care practices in a timely manner.
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Blood glucose control reduces the risk for eye, kidney, and nerve diseases among people with diabetes by about 40%.
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Blood pressure control reduces the risk for heart disease and stroke among people with diabetes by 33%–50%. It also reduces the risk for eye, kidney, and nerve diseases by about 33%.
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Detecting and treating diabetic eye disease with laser therapy can reduce the risk for loss of eyesight by about 50%–60%. Comprehensive foot care programs can reduce amputation rates by 45%–85%.
*Above cited from the CDC