Half Of Americans Have Diabetes Or High Blood Sugar, Survey Finds

Half of Americans Have Diabetes or High Blood Sugar, Survey Finds

Half of all U.S. adults have diabetes or blood sugar so high they’re almost diabetic, researchers reported Tuesday.
And for the first time they’ve looked at diabetes rates among Asian-Americans and find they are nearly as high as rates among other minorities. Twenty percent of Asian-Americans had diabetes, the survey found, and half of them were not aware of it.
Andy Menke of global health research company Social & Scientific Systems, Catherine Cowie of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and others used annual national survey data of 5,000 people for their report.
They found that 12 percent to 14 percent of adults had diagnosed diabetes in 2012, the latest data available. It’s almost all Type 2 diabetes, which is caused by poor diet, obesity and a lack of exercise.
While 11 percent of whites had diabetes, nearly twice as many – 22 percent – of blacks did. More than 20 percent of Asians had diabetes and 22.6 percent of Hispanics did.
“The proportion of diabetes that’s undiagnosed is as high as 50 percent in Asian-Americans and the Hispanic population compared to about a third in whites and it blacks,” Cowie said.
They found a steep rise in diabetes between 1990 and 2008, and found it started leveling off after that.
“Diabetes prevalence significantly increased over time in every age group, in both sexes, in every racial/ethnic group, by all education levels, and in all poverty income (groups),” the team wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“When stratified by BMI, diabetes only increased among peopl Continue reading

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Diabetes breakthrough: New smartphone app could help million of sufferers

Scientists believe revolutionary smartphone technology, which can painlessly measure blood glucose levels without puncturing the skin, could transform the lives of millions of diabetics and prevent others from developing the deadly condition.
More than four million people in the UK live with diabetes and it is believed a further 12 million are at risk of developing the illness that can lead to blindness, amputation, heart disease and stroke.
High-profile sufferers of the condition include former Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave, Hollywood actor Tom Hanks and Prime Minister Theresa May who has revealed that she is a Type 1 diabetic and has to inject insulin up to five times a day.
The Epic Health app, which is set to undergo clinical trials in the UK in the coming months, replaces the need for diabetics to prick their fingers several times a day which patients complain is inconvenient and uncomfortable.
The app, which is suitable for both Type 1 and 2 diabetics, works by placing a fingertip over the camera lens of a smartphone and capturing a series of close-up images that convey information about the user’s heart rate, temperature and blood pressure to respiration rate and blood oxygen saturation.
Similar innovations have been developed using laser technology and sensor pads to avoid using needles but most need an accompanying gadget to interpret the results.
But the makers claim that the real breakthrough of the Epic app is its ability to measure insulin resistance levels – a key way of determining whether someone is pre-diabetic. It does this by measuring the variatio 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. Continue reading

The Connection Between Diabetes and Your Pancreas

A direct connection exists between the pancreas and diabetes. The pancreas is an organ deep in your abdomen behind your stomach. It’s an important part of your digestive system. The pancreas produces enzymes and hormones that help you digest food. One of those hormones, insulin, is necessary to regulate glucose. Glucose refers to sugars in your body. Every cell in your body needs glucose for energy. Think of insulin as a lock to the cell. Insulin must open the cell to allow it to use glucose for energy.
If your pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t make good use of it, glucose builds up in your bloodstream, leaving your cells starved for energy. When glucose builds up in your bloodstream, this is known as hyperglycemia. The symptoms of hyperglycemia include thirst, nausea, and shortness of breath.
Low glucose, known as hypoglycemia, also causes many symptoms, including shakiness, dizziness, and loss of consciousness.
Hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia can quickly become life-threatening.
Each type of diabetes involves the pancreas not functioning properly. The way in which the pancreas doesn’t function properly differs depending on the type. No matter what type of diabetes you have, it requires ongoing monitoring of blood glucose levels so you can take the appropriate action.
Type 1 diabetes
In type 1 diabetes the immune system erroneously attacks the beta cells that produce insulin in your pancreas. It causes permanent damage, leaving your pancreas unable to produce insulin. Exactly what triggers the immune system to do that isn’t clear. Genetic and environ Continue reading

Diabetes could be cured as scientists find cause of disease

Diabetes could be cured after scientists discovered that toxic clumps of a hormone stop cells producing insulin.
Scientists at Manchester University have found that both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are driven by the same underlying mechanism.
The findings suggest that both forms occur when the hormone amylin begins to clump together, surrounding cells, and preventing them from producing insulin.
Insulin is essential for moving sugar from the blood stream into muscles and fatty tissue to provide energy. But too little insulin allows dangerous levels of glucose to build up in the blood, causing damage to the heart kidneys, eyes and nerves.
However the new finding could pave the way for drugs which stop the amylin build-up in the first place or dissolve clumps which are already present.
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More than three million people in Britain have been diagnosed with diabetes, with that figure expected to five million by 2025.
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The pancreas produces both insulin and amylin Continue reading