Your Weight And Diabetes
Diabetes is a group of disorders characterized by chronic high blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia) due to the body's failure to produce any or enough insulin to regulate high glucose levels. There are two main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, which often occurs in children or adolescents, is caused by the body's inability to make insulin or type 2 diabetes, which occurs as a result of the body's inability to react properly to insulin (insulin resistance). Type 2 diabetes is more prevalent than type 1 diabetes and is therefore seen in roughly 90% of all diabetes cases. Type 2 diabetes is predominantly diagnosed after the age of forty, however, it is now being found in all age ranges, including children and adolescents. The impact of diabetes goes beyond chronic hyperglycemia. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness (diabetic retinopathy), end stage kidney diseases (diabetic nephropathy) and non-traumatic lower extremity amputations (diabetic neuropathy) in working-age adults. People with diabetes are also two to four times more likely to experience cardiovascular complications and strokes. Diabetes and its related complications result in an estimated 200,000+ deaths each year, making diabetes one of the major causes of mortality in the U.S. In 2012, the NIH reported an estimated 29.1 million Americans (9.3% of the population) living with diabetes. Of these, an estimated 8.1 million persons were unaware that they had the disease. How does my weight relate to type 2 diabetes? There are many risk factors for type 2 diabetes such as age, race, pregnancy, stress, certain medications, genetics or family history, high cholesterol and obesity. However, the single best predictor of type 2 diabetes is overweight or obesity. Almost 90% of people living with type 2 diabetes a Continue reading >>
Overview
The importance of both diabetes and these comorbidities will continue to increase as the population ages. Therapies that have proven to reduce microvascular and macrovascular complications will need to be assessed in light of the newly identified comorbidities. Lifestyle change has been proven effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes in high-risk individuals. Based on this, new public health approaches are emerging that may deserve monitoring at the national level. For example, the Diabetes Prevention Program research trial demonstrated that lifestyle intervention had its greatest impact in older adults and was effective in all racial and ethnic groups. Translational studies of this work have also shown that delivery of the lifestyle intervention in group settings at the community level are also effective at reducing type 2 diabetes risk. The National Diabetes Prevention Program has now been established to implement the lifestyle intervention nationwide. Another emerging issue is the effect on public health of new laboratory based criteria, such as introducing the use of A1c for diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or for recognizing high risk for type 2 diabetes. These changes may impact the number of individuals with undiagnosed diabetes and facilitate the introduction of type 2 diabetes prevention at a public health level. Several studies have suggested that process indicators such as foot exams, eye exams, and measurement of A1c may not be sensitive enough to capture all aspects of quality of care that ultimately result in reduced morbidity. New diabetes quality-of-care indicators are currently under development and may help determine whether appropriate, timely, evidence-based care is linked to risk factor reduction. In addition, the scientific evid Continue reading >>
Diabetes Still On The Rise In Chinese Adults
More than 11 percent of Chinese adults may have had diabetes in 2010, with China becoming one of the most diabetes-prevalent countries in Asia, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday. The numbers show a steady rise. In 1980, the prevalence of diabetes in China was less than 1 percent. By 1994, it was up to 2.5 percent, and further rose to 5.5 percent by 2000-2001. The last national survey taken in 2007 reported a prevalence of 9.7 percent. "The estimated prevalence of diabetes in the Chinese population is very similar to the US population (11.3 percent), even though overweight and obesity are much more common in the United States," the study said. Of the 98,658 Chinese adults surveyed who had diabetes, 30.1 percent were aware that they had the condition, and only 25.8 percent were being treated for the disease. In an editorial accompanying the study, Juliana C. N. Chan, chair professor of medicine and therapeutics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, wrote that the rate of diabetes in China is not slowing down, despite alarms sounded after a widely publicized study from 2007 showing the growing levels of diabetes and pre-diabetes in China. "Diabetes is a societal and a healthcare challenge due to complex interplays among genetic, perinatal, lifestyle, and environmental factors," Chan wrote. "The lack of awareness, information, and feedback has caused many individuals unknowingly to engage in risk-conferring behaviors," she continued. "Even when the individual becomes aware of his or her risk conditions, the healthcare systems in many developing areas are not designed to manage and support a person's multiple health needs for 30 to 40 years or more." Qi Sun, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard Sc Continue reading >>
2 Types Of Diabetes On The Rise In Children
Two new studies on diabetes deliver good and bad news, but the overall message is that the blood sugar disease remains a formidable public health burden. The first study looked at the incidence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in U.S. children, and uncovered this troubling trend: From 2002 to 2012, the rates for both types of diabetes increased, especially among racial and ethnic minorities. But a bit of hope was offered up in the second study: Swedish researchers reported a drop in the incidence of heart disease and stroke in adults with both types of diabetes. “These studies highlight our concerns about the increasing prevalence of diabetes. Every 23 seconds, another person is diagnosed with diabetes [in the United States],” said Dr. William Cefalu, chief scientific, medical and mission officer for the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Cefalu added that the Swedish study was encouraging and shows that things are “trending in the right direction. Because of research in diabetes, we’ve been able to improve the lives of millions of people with diabetes around the world, but the disease is still increasing worldwide. We still have a lot of work to do.” In the United States, approximately 29 million people have diabetes, according to the ADA. The vast majority of those have type 2 diabetes. About 1.3 million people have type 1 diabetes. In people with type 2 diabetes, the body doesn’t use insulin properly. This is called insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone that helps usher sugar from foods into the body’s cells to be used as fuel. When someone has type 2 diabetes, this process doesn’t work well and blood sugar levels rise. Obesity is the main risk factor for type 2 diabetes, though it’s not the only factor involved in the disease. Type 1 diabetes is Continue reading >>
Projection Of Diabetes Burden Through 2050
Impact of changing demography and disease prevalence in the U.S. Abstract OBJECTIVE—To project the number of people with diagnosed diabetes in the U.S. through 2050, accounting for changing demography and diabetes prevalence rates. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We combined age-, sex-, and race-specific diagnosed diabetes prevalence rates—predicted from 1980–1998 trends in prevalence data from the National Health Interview Survey—with Bureau of Census population demographic projections. Sensitivity analyses were performed by varying both prevalence rate and population projections. RESULTS—The number of Americans with diagnosed diabetes is projected to increase 165%, from 11 million in 2000 (prevalence of 4.0%) to 29 million in 2050 (prevalence of 7.2%). The largest percent increase in diagnosed diabetes will be among those aged ≥75 years (+271% in women and +437% in men). The fastest growing ethnic group with diagnosed diabetes is expected to be black males (+363% from 2000–2050), with black females (+217%), white males (+148%), and white females (+107%) following. Of the projected 18 million increase in the number of cases of diabetes in 2050, 37% are due to changes in demographic composition, 27% are due to population growth, and 36% are due to increasing prevalence rates. CONCLUSIONS—If recent trends in diabetes prevalence rates continue linearly over the next 50 years, future changes in the size and demographic characteristics of the U.S. population will lead to dramatic increases in the number of Americans with diagnosed diabetes. In 1998, the number of people in the Unites States with diagnosed diabetes was estimated to be 10.4 million—representing an increase of 2.9 million diagnosed cases since 1980 (1). About half of this increase was attribute Continue reading >>
Study: Diabetes Rates Skyrocket Among Children And Teens
Health Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images Researchers say Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes will become more common, placing a burden on the health care system Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are significantly rising among young people in the United States, according to new research that warns of a growing epidemic that could strain the American health care system. Between 2001 and 2009, Type 1 diabetes rose 21 percent among children and teenagers, said the study published in the journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) this week. It also found that Type 2 diabetes increased 30 percent over the same eight-year period. Type 1 diabetes appears most often in children, and is a disorder in which the pancreas does not make insulin, leading to too much glucose in the blood. People with Type 1 diabetes need to take insulin for the rest of their lives. Type 2 diabetes is more common, and occurs when blood sugar levels are too high and the body doesn't make insulin well enough. It is often caused by an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. It can be controlled through changes in diet, exercise and medications. The JAMA study was based on data from 3 million children and adolescents. The population studied came from doctor-diagnosed cases from five medical centers in California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington state, and included some Native American reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. Type 1 diabetes was studied in kids and teens up to 19 years old and Type 2 in those ages 10 to 19. While researchers said more work is needed to determine the reasons for the rise, they posited that the usual culprit for Type 2 diabetes — obesity — was a factor. More puzzling is the rise of Type 1 diabetes, researchers said. The causes of Type 1 are still up for debate, but th Continue reading >>
Gestational Diabetes On The Rise: What Every Mom Should Know
The percentage of women diagnosed with gestational diabetes is increasing in the United States and the American Diabetes Association estimates that it will occur in up to 18 percent of all pregnancies. Experts agree that it’s not just a problem during pregnancy; it can actually cause a lifetime of complications in both mothers and their children. Learn what the latest research on gestational diabetes suggests and what you can do to prevent and manage it. Are you at risk? Gestational diabetes is a medical condition that causes blood sugar levels to rise during pregnancy. When you eat, the food is converted to glucose, which the body uses for energy. But the only way glucose gets into the cells is through insulin, and when the cells become resistant to insulin, diabetes occurs. Gestational diabetes can be genetic and some ethnic groups – American Indian, African American, Asian, and Hispanic – are more prone. Women over the age of 25, and especially those over 35, have a higher risk. If you had a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds, even if you were never diagnosed with gestational diabetes, chances are you could have it during your next pregnancy. Some studies show that 50 percent of women who have gestational diabetes have no other risk factors. Yet experts agree that lifestyle is the most important predictor. “More people are going into pregnancy overweight,” said Dr. Danine Fruge, director of women’s health and family medicine at the Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa in Miami, Fla. If you’re overweight or obese, your chances of having gestational diabetes is two and four times higher, respectively, than a woman at a normal weight, according to a report in the journal Diabetes Care. If you smoke, your chances double. Many women who aren’t diabetic going Continue reading >>
New Diabetes Research From Gallup And Sharecare
According to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index™, the national prevalence of diabetes climbed to a new high of 11.6% in 2016, up from 10.6% in 2008. If the diabetes rate had held steady at its 2008 level, 2.5 million fewer U.S. adults would have the disease today. Key findings in the new Gallup-Sharecare State of Well-Being: The Face of Diabetes in the United States report reveals that some groups including seniors, those with low income, and middle-aged blacks and Hispanics are approaching or even exceeding a 20% diabetes rates. Additional insights include: Diabetes rates rise alarmingly with age; seniors (age 65 and up) have a 23.6% prevalence of diabetes. Among regions in the U.S., the South has the highest prevalence of diabetes (12.8%); the West has the lowest prevalence (10.3%). Among the four major race and ethnic groups in the U.S., the diabetes rate is highest among blacks (14.7%) and lowest among Asians (5.7%). Income and education levels have an inverse relationship with diabetes — prevalence falls as education and income levels rise. Among occupations, transportation workers have the highest self-reported diabetes rate, while physicians have the lowest rate. To learn more, click the download button and click on The Face of Diabetes in the United States. Continue reading >>
Why Gestational Diabetes Is On The Rise
Gestational diabetes cases are soaring, and you (as well as your baby) might be at risk without even knowing it. Find out gestational diabetes symptoms and diet. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), or high blood sugar during pregnancy, used to be relatively rare, occurring in about 3 percent to 4 percent of pregnancies. But in recent years, the rate has doubled—now, up to 6 percent to 8 percent of moms-to-be are diagnosed with this prenatal complication. And new recommendations lowering the cutoff point for diagnosis may lead to an even more dramatic increase. If these new guidelines from an international panel of 50 experts are adopted in the United States, 16 percent of pregnant women may hear the words, "You have gestational diabetes." In women with GDM, excess glucose (blood sugar) passes from the mother's bloodstream through the placenta. Serious pregnancy complications include preeclampsia (a serious high blood pressure condition that can be fatal), preterm delivery and delivery of overweight babies, often via Cesarean section. Some 70 percent to 80 percent of women diagnosed with GDM in the United States eventually develop type II diabetes. New research is showing that GDM can have long-term consequences for children as well. "Children of women with GDM are at risk for developing type II diabetes themselves," says Danielle Downs, Ph.D., an associate professor of kinesiology and obstetrics and gynecology at Pennsylvania State University who conducts research on gestational diabetes. But even normal-size babies who are born to mothers with untreated GDM are at greater risk of becoming overweight kindergarteners—and, consequently, overweight adults. Although being overweight is a major risk factor for GDM, only about half of women diagnosed with it carry excess Continue reading >>
Diabetic Kidney Disease On The Rise In America, Despite Improved Diabetes Care
Diabetic kidney disease has become more prevalent in the United States over the past 20 years, despite a substantial increase in the use of medications for the treatment of people with diabetes, according to a study to be published June 22 in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. These medications include drugs that lower glucose, blood pressure and lipids. The widespread application of medications proven to improve health in clinical trials has markedly bettered the control of blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol in the diabetic population in the United States. “Improvements in reaching therapeutic targets in diabetes management have not translated into a decline in diabetic kidney disease,” said the lead author of the study, Dr. Ian H. de Boer, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology, Kidney Research Institute, and an adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. Diabetic kidney disease is a common complication of diabetes, de Boer explained, and develops in about 40 percent of people with diabetes. Diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease in the developed world. This type of kidney disease can appear as protein in the urine or impaired functioning of the tubes that filter urine, or both. Even mild signs of diabetic kidney disease, de Boer noted, are linked with a higher risk of heart disease and death, as well as greater health-care costs de Boer added that diabetic kidney disease accounts for almost half of the cases of end-stage kidney failure in the United States. Approximately 60 percent of patients with end stage kidney disease die within five years of onset. Medicare spending for the treatment of end stage kidney disease hit $26.8 billion in 2008, ba Continue reading >>
Obesity And Type 2 Diabetes Are Rising Among Young People
As reported in the New York Times earlier this year, leaders of a province of Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation in a region beset with high rates of obesity and diabetes, planned to ban imported food at government functions and tourist establishments. They did so because imported food in Vanuatu is often junk food that contributes to obesity. That is one small step toward addressing a worldwide health issue. Obesity has been rising globally for decades — to the point where there are now more people worldwide who are obese than underweight. With this trend has come an increase in diseases to which obesity contributes, including type 2 diabetes, which now afflicts 415 million adults worldwide. Once largely restricted to adults, type 2 diabetes has increasingly been diagnosed in children, adolescents and young adults in many parts of the world. Drawing on our FAIR Health database of billions of private healthcare claims, we released a white paper this year on the scope of the problem of obesity and type 2 diabetes in young people in the United States. Looking at claim lines (the individual procedures or services listed on an insurance claim), we found that from 2011 to 2015, claim lines with an obesity diagnosis increased in every age group. That included the pediatric population we were primarily studying (ages 0 to 22) and adults (23 and older), whom we studied for comparison We divided the pediatric population into the following age groups: ages 0-2, 3-5, 6-9, 10-13, 14-16, 17-18 and 19-22. In infants and toddlers (ages 0-2), the increase in claim lines with an obesity diagnosis was 94 percent; in middle schoolers (ages 10-13), 97 percent; in college age people (ages 19-22), 154 percent; and in adults, 191 percent. During the same period, claim lines with a type 2 diab Continue reading >>
The Terrifying Rise Of Diabetes, In Every Corner Of The U.s.
Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., due to sugary diets and the lack of exercise. If current disease rates continue, one in three Americans will have diabetes by 2050. Over time, the condition can lead to kidney failure, limb amputations and blindness, among other complications. That Data Dude created this interactive map showing the percent of the current population that has been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Colorado stands out by far as the healthiest state by this measure: In many of its counties, 4 percent or less of the population has been diagnosed with diabetes. South Dakota, Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina are at the opposite end of the scale. In counties in South Dakota, North Carolina, and Mississippi more than 14 percent of the population had been diagnosed with diabetes in 2012. The map shows that only 10 counties in the U.S. experienced a decrease in diabetes rates between 2004 and 2012: McCracken County, Kentucky Arlington County, Virginia Hawaii County, Hawaii Beckham County, Oklahoma San Francisco County, California Roosevelt County, Montana Cuming County, Nebraska Mellette County, South Dakota Preston County, West Virginia Logan County, Nebraska In five more counties, in Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, rate remained unchanged. But in all the other counties in the U.S. – that’s 2,992 of them – diabetes prevalence has gone up. More stories from Know More, Wonkblog's social media site: - Premature death among American women is on par with Mexico, even though the U.S. spends 10 times as much Continue reading >>
Type 2 Diabetes, Once Considered A Disease For Adults, Is Increasingly Common In Tweens And Teens
For years, health experts have bemoaned the rise of childhood obesity in the United States. About 17% of kids and teens in the U.S. are now considered obese, a figure that has more than tripled since the 1970s, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A report in this week’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine lays out one of the consequences of all this excess weight: a corresponding increase in childhood cases of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes occurs when extra body fat makes it hard for cells to use insulin, a hormone that turns sugar into energy. Over time, blood sugar levels rise and cause blood vessels to become stiff, increasing the risk of life-threatening conditions like heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, among others. More than 75,000 Americans die of diabetes each year, the CDC says. Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes, because it would take years to develop. (That’s in contrast to type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, which occurs when the immune system destroys the cells that make insulin.) But these days, doctors are diagnosing type 2 in school-age kids, and occasionally even in toddlers. After reviewing data on 10- to 19-year-olds in primarily five states (California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington), researchers determined that 12.5 out of every 100,000 of them had a bona fide case of type 2 diabetes in 2011 and 2012. That compares with nine cases per 100,000 youth in 2002 and 2003. After accounting for age, gender, race and ethnicity, the study authors found that the incidence of type 2 diabetes in this age group rose by an average of 4.8% per year during the study period. The increase is detailed in this chart, which comes from the CDC. Here are five Continue reading >>
Diabetes Cases Have Quadrupled In Just Over 3 Decades
(CNN)It's a potentially fatal disease whose risks can in many cases be prevented through lifestyle measures. So why has diabetes seen a massive increase in sufferers? The number of people living with the potentially fatal disease has quadrupled since 1980, to more than 400 million, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Worldwide, diabetes killed 1.5 million in 2012 alone, with high blood-glucose causing another 2.2 million deaths, the organization says. In its first Global Diabetes Report, the WHO says a "whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach" is required to tackle the disease, which costs an estimated $827 billion annually in patient care and medicine. Findings of the WHO report were published in the medical journal Lancet, and highlight inequalities between countries, as diagnoses and medicine are more accessible in high-income nations. Diabetes is a chronic disease caused by the body's failure to produce enough insulin to regulate blood glucose -- or blood sugar. Raised blood glucose can eventually damage the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves. Abnormally low blood glucose can cause seizures and loss of consciousness. Type 2 diabetes -- which results from the body's ineffective use of insulin -- is far more common and can be influenced by lifestyle as well as genetic and metabolic factors. Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and impaired fasting glycemia (IFG) are elevated glucose levels not yet at the level of diabetes but which nonetheless increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Additionally, pregnant woman can develop gestational diabetes, increasing the risk of complications and the long-term risk of type 2 diabetes. The WHO says that between 1980 and 2014, the percentage of adults with diabetes increased from 4.7% of the Continue reading >>
5 Reasons Why Type One Diabetes Is On The Rise
A 2009 study in The Lancet found that new cases of type 1 diabetes in kids could double in the next 10 years. Possible reasons for this dramatic rise include: Too big too fast. The "accelerator hypothesis" theorizes that children who are bigger and grow more quickly are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes. Too little sun. The "sunshine hypothesis" comes from data showing that countries situated closer to the equator have lower rates of type 1 diabetes. Too clean. The "hygiene hypothesis" is the notion that cleanliness -- lack of exposure to certain germs and parasites -- may increase susceptibility to diseases like diabetes. Too much cow's milk. The "cow's milk hypothesis" states that exposing babies to infant formula containing cow's milk in the first six months of life damages their immune systems, and can trigger autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes. Too much pollution. The "POP hypothesis" alleges that being exposed to pollutants increases diabetes risk. Unlike type 2 diabetes, which is caused by insulin resistance and faulty leptin signaling due to inappropriate diet and lack of exercise, people with type 1 diabetes do not produce insulin and must therefore inject insulin several times a day if they are to remain alive. Tragically those with type 1 diabetes can have the healthiest lifestyle possible yet still suffer many diseases, as current technology is a poor substitute for a fully functioning pancreas. Type 1 diabetes is actually an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system destroys pancreatic cells that produce insulin. The disease tends to progress rather quickly and therefore needs to be diagnosed early, as it can result in serious long-term complications including blindness, kidney failure, heart disease and stroke. While type 1 diabetes is f Continue reading >>
