| Friday, November 12, 2004 |
| DIABETES.... THE GROWING THREAT |
(From the American Diabetes Association/ Winnie Yu)
Every year, 1.3 million Americans are diagnosed with Diabetes.
You probably know someone with diabetes. Maybe you've winced as a friend pricked her /his finger for a blood glucose (sugar)test., or noticed the hyper vigilance about nutrition that's part of living with diabetes. And you may even be aware of the complications--- circulatory, kidney and vision problems-- that can result from diabetes.
The numbers are, in a word, staggering. Approximately 18.2 million people, or more than 6 percent of Americans, now have diabetes. Of those, an estimated 5.2 million don't even know they have the disease. At the rate we're going, experts predict that 30 percent of all Americans born in 2000 will wind up with Diabetes.Not coincidentally, the increase in diabetes is occuring at the same time the nation is becoming increasingly sedentary and overweight.
Diabetes is a metabollic disorder that occurs when your body can't control glucose from food into energy. So you winde up with excess glucose in your bloodstream where, if left unchecked, it can wreck havoc throughout your body. Approximately 90 to 95 percent of all people with diabetes type II deabetes, in which the body no longer responds to insulin (the hormone necessary to convert glucose into energy) effectively and often stops making insulin altogether. The rest have type 1 diabetes which is the immune system destroys the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas.
RISK FACTORS
The risk of developing diabetes increase with age,but is also influenced by the following factors:
** Being overweight
** Blood pressure of 140/90 mm/hg or higher
** High cholesterol levels. HDL less than 40 mg/dl in men and less than 50 mg/dl in women or triglycerides of 250mg/dl or higher.
** A parent or a sibling with diabetes
** Being a member of certain ethnic groups: African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander and Native American
** A history of getational diabetes or giving birth to ababy weighing more than 9 pounds.
** An inactive lifestyle. |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 5:21 AM |
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Name: infraternam meam
Home: Chicago, United States
About Me: I am now at the prime of my life
and have been married for the past 25 years.
Sickly at times, but wants to see the elixir vita,
so that I will be able to see my grandchildren from my two boys.
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