How Type 2 Diabetes Affects Life Expectancy
Type 2 diabetes typically shows up later in life, although the incidence in younger people is increasing. The disease, which is characterized by high blood glucose (sugar), or hyperglycemia, usually results from a combination of unhealthy lifestyle habits, obesity, and genes. Over time, untreated hyperglycemia can lead to serious, life-threatening complications. Type 2 diabetes also puts you at risk for certain health conditions that can reduce your life expectancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diabetes is the 7th most common cause of death in the United States. However, there is no defining statistic to tell you how long you’ll live with type 2 diabetes. The better you have your diabetes under control, the lower your risk for developing associated conditions that may shorten your lifespan. The top cause of death for people with type 2 diabetes is cardiovascular disease. This is due to the fact that high blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels, and also because people with type 2 diabetes often have high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and other factors that increase the risk of heart disease. When you have type 2 diabetes, there are many factors that can increase your risk of complications, and these complications can impact your life expectancy. They include: High blood sugar levels: Uncontrolled high blood sugar levels affect many organs and contribute to the development of complications. High blood pressure: According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), 71 percent of people with diabetes have high blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk of kidney disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and other complications. Lipid disorders: According to the ADA, 65 percent of those with diabetes have high low- Continue reading >>
How Do Others Live With Diabetes?
Living with any chronic disease can make you feel like you are living alone with it. It can be quite isolating to feel this way. Recurring thoughts like Nobody understands me, I am going through this alone!, My symptoms are worse than everyone elses! are very common amongst those populations. Diabetes, as we are all aware of, is not only draining on physical energies but also emotional energies. People who have diabetes are constantly working hard to keep their blood sugar levels on point, so that they do not experience low or high blood levels. They tend to get so consumed with the same daily routine that they forget that there are others who have the same routine as them. I would like to invite you to stop for a few minutes and read to see how others are living with their diabetes. If you constantly feel like you are alone in this journey, it is important to remind yourself that you are not. The National Diabetes Statistics Report (2017) estimated the following numbers: 3 million people have diabetes in the US (that is 9.4% of the entire population!) 1 million out of the 30.3 have been diagnosed with diabetes The remaining 7.2 million people are still undiagnosed! If you sit with those numbers long enough, you will realize that there are millions of people around you who are doing the same thing as you on a daily basis: keeping their blood sugar levels on target, prepping meals appropriate to their diet, ensuring all the while that they get enough physical activity. In this article, we will share stories from two such people who are not only living with diabetes, but they are kicking diabetes ass. They are an inspiration to all of us because they have not only come into terms with and have accepted their diabetes but are also encouraging others to do the same by thei Continue reading >>
What Is The Life Expectancy For Diabetics?
Diabetes is recognized as one of the leading causes of disability and death worldwide. There was a time when Type 2 diabetes was common in people in their late forties and fifties. However, thanks to the easy availability of processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, poor sleep and a host of other unfavorable factors, type 2 diabetes affects millions of young adults throughout the globe today. A report was commissioned in 2010 by the National Academy on an Aging Society. It showed that diabetes cut off an average of 8.5 years from the lifespan of a regular, diabetic 50-year-old as compared to a 50-year-old without the disease. This data was provided by the Health and Retirement Study, a survey of more than 20,000 Americans over the age of 50, done every two years by the University of Michigan. Characterized by high blood glucose levels, T2D can be the result of a combination of genes, obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle. If left untreated, diabetes can be life-threatening. Complications of this disease can take a serious toll on a patient’s health and well-being. So, how long do diabetics live, you ask? Does having diabetes shorten one’s life? Let’s address these questions, one by one. MORE: Decoding The Dawn Phenomenon (High Morning Blood Sugar) How Long Do Diabetics Live? Diabetes is a system-wide disorder which is categorized by elevated blood glucose levels. This blood travels throughout the human body and when it is laden with sugar, it damages multiple systems. When the condition is left unchecked or is managed poorly, the lifespan of diabetic patients is reduced due to constant damage. Early diagnosis and treatment of diabetes for preventing its long-term complications is the best coping strategy. So, don’t ignore your doctor’s advice if you’re pre-diabeti Continue reading >>
4 Steps To Manage Your Diabetes For Life
This publication has been reviewed by NDEP for plain language principles. Learn more about our review process. Actions you can take The marks in this booklet show actions you can take to manage your diabetes. Help your health care team make a diabetes care plan that will work for you. Learn to make wise choices for your diabetes care each day. Step 1: Learn about diabetes. What is diabetes? There are three main types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes – Your body does not make insulin. This is a problem because you need insulin to take the sugar (glucose) from the foods you eat and turn it into energy for your body. You need to take insulin every day to live. Type 2 diabetes – Your body does not make or use insulin well. You may need to take pills or insulin to help control your diabetes. Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes. Gestational (jest-TAY-shun-al) diabetes – Some women get this kind of diabetes when they are pregnant. Most of the time, it goes away after the baby is born. But even if it goes away, these women and their children have a greater chance of getting diabetes later in life. You are the most important member of your health care team. You are the one who manages your diabetes day by day. Talk to your doctor about how you can best care for your diabetes to stay healthy. Some others who can help are: dentist diabetes doctor diabetes educator dietitian eye doctor foot doctor friends and family mental health counselor nurse nurse practitioner pharmacist social worker How to learn more about diabetes. Take classes to learn more about living with diabetes. To find a class, check with your health care team, hospital, or area health clinic. You can also search online. Join a support group — in-person or online — to get peer support with managing your Continue reading >>
What It’s Like To Live With Type 1 Diabetes
What It’s Like To Live With Type 1 Diabetes By: Valeria Guerrero What’s it like? It’s pricking your finger endlessly throughout the day. It’s not being afraid of blood because you get used to seeing so much of it. It’s no longer feeling tremor to a needle because you’ve had no choice than to be poked by them every day. It’s being woken up countless times throughout the night to fix blood sugars that just won’t become stable. It’s waking up feeling hung over because your sugars were high all night no matter the amount of corrections you gave yourself. It’s not being able to eat whatever you want before carb counting and analyzing how it will affect your sugars later. It’s having to put on a fake smile every time you have to explain to someone that type 1 and type 2 diabetes are NOT the same thing. It’s not being able to go a single work out without stressing if you’re going to go too low, drop too fast or go high. It’s seeing all the scars all over our tummy, arms and legs from all the site changes and pokes and just cry. It’s people staring at you while you poke yourself and watching you like something is wrong with you. It’s people telling you “you can’ t have that” or “should you be eating that?” It’s people assuming you have type 2 when you say you have diabetes. It’s watching people look at you like you’re breaking the law by having a candy. It’s asking yourself what you did wrong because you got this disease even when they say it isn’t your fault. It’s remembering what it was like before being diagnosed and feeling nostalgic. It’s struggling with money and possibly going into debt because supplies are just so expensive. It’s wanting to cry whenever you hear a representative say “your insurance doesn’t co Continue reading >>
How We Live A Normal Life With Diabetes
Just let the diagnosis be part of the fabric of your lives, not the focus. – Themighty.com At first, I thought it was just another one of those futile memes being shared – another quote meant to inspire that actually does nothing but remind you that you’re wasting time on Facebook. But this one – for a change – struck me. It spoke to me so much I even shared it with a one-syllable retort: “How?” How does one actually pull that off when you have a disease that requires constant monitoring and care? With diabetes, it’s easy for the diagnosis to become all you are. And yet, as my daughter, family, and I lap our way into our 18th year with Type 1 diabetes in our lives (Lauren was diagnosed in the fall of 1997, a tiny little kindergartener), I feel like we’ve somehow managed, for the most part, to figure out that “how.” Some of our success came from our amazing medical teams over the years, some came from other families I met, and some came from what just seemed to make sense. Most of it, though, came from my determination (which was quite honestly fueled by my daughter’s determination) NOT to let diabetes win all the time. Could we stabilize blood sugars for good? Nope. Could we remove the need for constant oversight and intervention? No again. But what we could do was embrace a rich, exciting and somewhat “normal” life, one where diabetes doesn’t always have the final say. My first goal in adjusting to life as the parent of a child with diabetes was to always put diabetes second and life’s moments first. We always have been—and always will be – an active family. We travel. We ski,swim, and play in long, hot tennis tournaments. Our kids played out in our yard with other kids for hours. They climbed trees and rode bikes. And I did not want Continue reading >>
Can I Expect Diabetes Patients Have Normal Life?
Sympler, Your Health Buddy says, After diabetes diagnosis, many type 1 and type 2 diabetics worry about their life expectancy. Death is never a pleasant subject but it's human nature to want to know 'how long can I expect to live'. There is no hard and fast answer to the question of ‘how long can I expect to live’ as a number of factors influence one’s life expectancy. How soon diabetes was diagnosed, the progress of diabetic complications and whether one has other existing conditions will all contribute to one’s life expectancy - regardless of whether the person in question has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes have traditionally lived shorter lives, with life expectancy having been quoted as being reduced by over 20 years. However, improvement in diabetes care in recent decades indicates that people with type 1 diabetes are now living significantly longer. According to the experts, people with type 1 diabetes born after 1965 had a life expectancy of 69 years. What causes a shorter life expectancy in diabetics? Higher blood sugars over a period of time allow diabetic complications to set in, such as: Diabetic retinopathy Kidney disease Cardiovascular disease (heart disease) Higher blood sugars can often be accompanied by associated conditions such as: Higher blood pressure High cholesterol Both help to contribute to poor circulation and further the damage to organs such as the heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves in particular. In some cases, short term complications such as hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis can also be fatal. What can a diabetic patient do to help increase his/her life expectancy? Maintaining good blood glucose control is a key way to prolong the length of your life. Keeping blood sugar levels within the recommended blood Continue reading >>
How To Live A Healthy Life As A Diabetic
Edit Article If you have diabetes, you'll be looking into improving and maintaining your health for the long run. You control your diabetes successfully, by eating well, exercising and keeping informed about developments for better treatment. Your quality of life is also about finding ways to be happy, share with others and have fun in your life. While you've got a condition which will affect you medically, it is possible to start each day afresh and take control of your health rather than let it dictate your routine. 1 Make an appointment to discuss your overall health with your trusted health team. This is important, both so that you understand what will help you and you don't feel alone dealing with this disease. In particular: Always seek medical advice for any questions or concerns you may have. Do not let small things go unnoticed––even little changes can mean something significant and the sooner you bring it to the attention of your doctor, the better. If you have not been following your recommended diet, or taking your medications as directed, you need to see your doctor. 2 Follow your recommended diet with care. Your doctor or dietitian should have given you a diet to follow; diet is key to maintaining wellness when you have diabetes. Every diabetic individual has differing needs, so it's likely that your doctor has tailored the diet suggestion to your specific needs. If you haven't been given a recommended diet, ask for one. Ask questions about what special needs you have and where you can source healthful options from if they're hard to obtain in your area. Remember to drink carefully too––many commercial and homemade drinks contain sugar and other additions that may spoil a carefully followed diet if not accounted for. A food diary can be helpful if Continue reading >>
This Is What It's Like To Live With Type 1 Diabetes
You probably know someone with type 1 diabetes (there are 1.25 million American children and adults living with the autoimmune disease), but do you really know what they're going through each day? Here's a brief glimpse: They're constantly checking their glucose numbers, watching what they eat, and worrying about how stress and other factors will influence their blood sugar. To learn more about what it's like to manage the condition day in and day out, read on. (Take back control of your eating—and lose weight in the process—with our 21-Day Challenge!) You worry about every little thing you eat. getty-103332848-worry-about-food-chris-ryan.jpg Always. "You cannot be a diabetic without thinking about food and how it will affect you," says Taylor, 25, from Salem, OR. "Each item of food that I put into my mouth has so much more to it than the taste. When you eat, you have questions running through your mind such as, 'How many carbs does this have?', 'Did I take enough insulin for this?', 'What if I am full but took too much insulin, do I still have to finish it?' Those are just some of the questions, and that is for every single item I eat." It used to be that people with type 1 diabetes had to check their blood glucose values at least three or four times a day. However, according to Gregory Dodell, MD, a board-certified endocrinologist at Central Park Endocrinology New York, keeping up can be lower maintenance, thanks to new technology called a continuous glucose monitor (CGM)—which is a sensor that checks glucose values consistently throughout the day and is viewed via a separate device, including an iPhone app. You constantly have to explain to people the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. shutterstock_186887918-differences-designua.jpg "It is hard havi Continue reading >>
Long Live Living Long
Diabetes Forecast is celebrating its 60th birthday by talking to people who have had diabetes for 60 years—or longer. Here are their stories. Continue reading >>
My Life With Diabetes: 69 Years And Counting
I do not know of many diabetics who developed the illness around the time I did, in 1946, who are still alive. I know of none who do not suffer from active complications. The reality is, had I not taken charge of my diabetes, it’s very unlikely that I’d be alive and active today. Many myths surround diet and diabetes, and much of what is still considered by the average physician to be sensible nutritional advice for diabetics can, over the long run, be fatal. I know, because conventional “wisdom” about diabetes almost killed me. I developed diabetes in 1946 at the age of twelve, and for more than two decades I was an “ordinary” diabetic, dutifully following doctor’s orders and leading the most normal life I could, given the limitations of my disease. Over the years, the complications from my diabetes became worse and worse, and like many diabetics in similar circumstances, I faced a very early death. I was still alive, but the quality of my life wasn’t particularly good. I have what is known as type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes, which usually begins in childhood (it’s also called juvenileonset diabetes). Type 1 diabetics must take daily insulin injections just to stay alive. Back in the 1940s, which were very much still the “dark ages” of diabetes treatment, I had to sterilize my needles and glass syringes by boiling them every day, and sharpen my needles with an abrasive stone. I used a test tube and an alcohol lamp (flame) to test my urine for sugar. Many of the tools the diabetic can take for granted today were scarcely dreamed of back then — there was no such thing as a rapid, finger-stick blood sugar–measuring device, nor disposable insulin syringes. Still, even today, parents of type 1 diabetics have to live with the same fear my par Continue reading >>
Diabetes And Life Expectancy: Ending Myths And Getting Started On Your Best Life Yet
For far too long, diabetes has been associated with shorter-than-average life spans and a lower quality of life for those people with the condition. But as it turns out, when diabetes is managed well, this is often not the case. With the proper tools, attitude, and support system, anyone with diabetes can change the course of their health. Why Having Diabetes Doesn’t Necessarily Mean You’ll Die Sooner It’s true that, when you consider heart-related cardiovascular complications, men and women with diabetes tend to have higher rates of early death than their peers without the disease, according to research. But it’s also true that no two people with diabetes are the same, and how a person manages his or her blood sugar is key when considering how the disease might affect your life span. “Having diabetes won’t necessarily change someone's life expectancy — it's how diabetes progresses. For every individual, diabetes is going to progress differently,” says Joanne Rinker, RD, CDE, director of practice and content development at the American Association of Diabetes Educators. “If it progresses at an extremely slow rate, because diabetes is so individualized, it might be so slow that it does not impact their life expectancy whatsoever.” Instead of thinking only about how diabetes will impact your life span, experts suggest that people with the condition should take a broader look at their overall health. “Diabetes is not a singular disease that one should focus on. Focus on how you can improve the different risk factors that can impact the functioning of the heart and other organs,” says Medha Munshi, MD, director of geriatric diabetes programs at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. “It's important to think, ‘What are the factors that would impact Continue reading >>
Diabetes Life Expectancy
Tweet After diabetes diagnosis, many type 1 and type 2 diabetics worry about their life expectancy. Death is never a pleasant subject but it's human nature to want to know 'how long can I expect to live'. There is no hard and fast answer to the question of ‘how long can I expect to live’ as a number of factors influence one’s life expectancy. How soon diabetes was diagnosed, the progress of diabetic complications and whether one has other existing conditions will all contribute to one’s life expectancy - regardless of whether the person in question has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. How long can people with diabetes expect to live? Diabetes UK estimates in its report, Diabetes in the UK 2010: Key Statistics on Diabetes[5], that the life expectancy of someone with type 2 diabetes is likely to be reduced, as a result of the condition, by up to 10 years. People with type 1 diabetes have traditionally lived shorter lives, with life expectancy having been quoted as being reduced by over 20 years. However, improvement in diabetes care in recent decades indicates that people with type 1 diabetes are now living significantly longer. Results of a 30 year study by the University of Pittsburgh, published in 2012, noted that people with type 1 diabetes born after 1965 had a life expectancy of 69 years.[76] How does diabetic life expectancy compare with people in general? The Office for National Statistics estimates life expectancy amongst new births to be: 77 years for males 81 years for females. Amongst those who are currently 65 years old, the average man can expect to live until 83 years old and the average woman to live until 85 years old. What causes a shorter life expectancy in diabetics? Higher blood sugars over a period of time allow diabetic complications to set in, su Continue reading >>
How To Live Normal Life With Diabetes
Maintaining diabetes is quite a mundane job. From controlling eating habits to regular medication, the total treatment procedure of this disease becomes harassment for the patients. However, some patience and guidance can surely help the diabetic patient to cope up with this disease and live a normal life like all the other healthy folks. Yes, you can live a normal life with Diabetes. In the beginning, you may feel heartbroken because in some way or other this disease will take away your freedom and change your lifestyle, but with time you will realize it’s very easy to live with diabetes. All you need is some information and some encouragement. Legionella Testing Lab - High Quality Lab Results CDC ELITE & NYSDOH ELAP Certified - Fast Results North America Lab Locations legionellatesting.com What are the steps you need to follow to live a normal life with Diabetes? 1. Gather information about Diabetes Collecting information and learning more about your disease will help you cope up with the fear you have regarding it. Most of the patients remain stressed out since they don’t have any clue about handling their disease, especially in the times of emergency. Therefore, learning all about the disease will help you in several ways. Moreover, in this age of internet, learning about new things isn’t much hard work. You may easily sit in front of your computer and know all about diabetes within hours. Plus, it’s proven that one can learn more from internet than months of schooling! Or if you aren’t much computer friendly, then you may contact a ‘diabetes educator’ who will explain you all the things you need to know, briefly! What are the main things you need to know about diabetes? The first and foremost thing you need to know is what type of diabetes have you de Continue reading >>
Living Longer With Diabetes
Diabetes tends to shorten your expected life. The good news is that you can do a lot to get those years back, and most of those things feel good. Studies disagree on exactly how much damage diabetes does. A Princeton University study of about 20,000 adults found that diabetes cuts about 8.5 years off the life expectancy of an average 50 year old, compared to a 50 year old without diabetes. Most of this early death comes from complications such as heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. People with diabetes are also less likely to be employed and more likely to be depressed and disabled, all of which can make life harder and potentially shorter, researchers found. However, a recent Dutch study published in the online journal PLOS One found much more encouraging results. People with Type 2 and an average age of 66 seem to have the same death rate as those without diabetes. Various factors influence death rates. According to the British site Diabetes.co.uk, “How soon diabetes was diagnosed, the progress of complications, and whether one has other existing conditions will all contribute to one’s life expectancy.” What to do Most complications of diabetes come from high blood sugars and high blood pressure. Too much sugar damages blood vessels and nerves. Almost any organ can fail given poor circulation caused by diabetes. According to mainstream medicine, the best way to lengthen life with Type 2 is to keep sugars down. In a typical recommendation, Diabetes.co.uk writes, “Keeping blood sugar levels within the recommended ranges will [reduce] the likelihood of complications and increase life expectancy…Enjoy a healthy lifestyle, with a well balanced diet, and regular activity.” If that doesn’t work, take medications, they say. With about ten categories of pr Continue reading >>
