Type 2 Diabetes Is Becoming An American Epidemic

You probably know someone who has Type 2 diabetes right now. It might be a family member, a friend or an acquaintance. Type 2 diabetes has become the biggest epidemic in the United States and in other countries. In fact, the number of adults with diabetes worldwide will more than double over the next twenty years. Most of this is due to the fact we consume way too much sugar and salt, in addition to being overweight or obese.

Although having a family history of diabetes raises your risk, you are not born with Type 2 diabetes. Historically, it was called adult onset diabetes because it was rare to get it before adulthood; it typically occurred in middle-age and older adults. This is no longer the case though, as many children and adolescents who are sedentary and overweight are also developing this disorder.

New research has come out showing that almost 26 million Americans have diabetes and approximately 79 million U.S. adults have prediabetes. These numbers come from new estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The National Diabetes Fact Sheet for 2011 stated diabetes now affects 8.3% of all Americans and 11.3% of those aged 20 and older. One scary statistic says an estimated 7 million Americans have diabetes and don't know it. These scary numbers show how critical it is for people to prevent Type 2 diabetes. It also highlights the fact that those people who have diabetes must learn how to manage it to prevent serious damage to blood vessels and nerves, leading to complications such as heart disease, loss of vision, kidney failure, amputations and impotence.

It is well known that a lifestyle program that includes increasing physical activity and losing weight can prevent or delay Type 2 diabetes. These 2011 numbers are actually an increase over the 2008 numbers when the CDC has estimated that 23.6 million Americans, which are 7.8% of the total population, have diabetes. They believe the numbers are also increasing because people are living longer and learning how to better manage their disease.

Learning to manage diabetes can help diabetics improve their cardiovascular risk factors and also reduce other complications such as amputations and kidney failure. This new study was the first time that the hemoglobin A1c test (HbA1c), which is now used as a part of the routine when diagnosing diabetes, was used in the compilation of numbers.

An astonishing 1.9 million Americans were diagnosed with diabetes in 2010. There are several ethnic minorities who have higher rates of diabetes when compared with the general population according to the statistics provided by the CDC.

It can't be stressed enough, Type 2 diabetes can be stopped before it starts with healthy lifestyle modifications: even the progression from prediabetes to full-blown Type 2 diabetes can be stopped or at least slowed down significantly.

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