Diabetes

What You Should Know About Diabetes

While there are approximately 20 million people in the United States with diabetes, only one third of them have been diagnosed, the remaining are unaware that they have diabetes.  While researchers are still trying to determine the cause of diabetes, there are many facts about diabetes that we do know. About one-third of people with diabetes don't know they have it. But they are still at risk for extra problems that can happen with diabetes.  Diabetes is getting more common. From 1990 to 1998, the number of people with a diabetes diagnosis increased by more than one-third. In 1990, almost 5 percent of people had this diagnosis. By 1998, more than 6 percent people did. The increase in diabetes in the United States is linked to the increase in obesity. Between 1991 and 2000, the number of people who were obese grew by about 60 percent.

The older you get, the more likely you are to get diabetes. About 20 percent people over 65 have it.  Younger people are less likely to get diabetes. About 1 in 500 people under the age of 20 have it.

People in some ethnic groups are more likely to get diabetes than others. If you're black, Mexican, Hispanic, American Indian or an Alaskan Native, you're about twice as likely to get diabetes as a white American your age. Researchers aren't sure why this is. But they think it may be due to differences in the foods people eat or their genes. Men and women are equally likely to get diabetes.

The fact is diabetes is not contagious; you can’t catch it like a cold. Although we don’t know why some people develop diabetes, while others who are predisposed to the disease do not, researched facts about diabetes tell us that people with diabetes are no more likely to catch a cold or flu virus or any other illness than other people are.  Taking regular doses of insulin will not cause hardening of the arteries or high blood pressure. Diabetes is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors; you cannot develop it by eating too much sugar, sweets or chocolate.  People with diabetes do not need special diabetic foods; they should follow a healthy meal plan low in saturated and trans fats, moderate in sugar and salt just like everyone else.

If you are a man with type 1 diabetes, the odds of your child getting diabetes are 1 in 17.  If you are a woman with type 1 diabetes and your child was born before you were 25, your child's risk is 1 in 25. If your child was born after you turned 25, your child's risk is 1 in 100.  Your child’s risk is doubled if you developed diabetes before age 11.  Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes.

Finding out you have diabetes is very scary. Diabetes is serious, but people with diabetes can live long, healthy, lives.