Diabetes afflicts 8.3% of Americans

The blue circle symbol used to represent diabetes.Image via Wikipedia
San Antonio Express-News:

New government estimates released Wednesday show the diabetes epidemic continues to worsen, with almost 26 million Americans now likely suffering from the disease — 7 million of them unaware they have it.

Although local numbers weren't included in the new estimates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that some 11.8 percent of Hispanic adults 20 and older have diabetes, compared to 7.1 percent of Anglos — meaning the problem likely is bigger in San Antonio.

“It's very alarming,” Anne Albright, the CDC's director of diabetes translation, said in an interview. “This is a serious disease, as you in Texas are well aware. But there are things that can be done to prevent the most common form, Type 2 diabetes, and there are things that can be done to help those who live with the disease live more successfully.”

The 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet found there are 2.2 million more diabetics today than in 2008. The percentage of all Americans, young and old, with diabetes rose from 7.8 to 8.3 percent. Among adults, 11.3 percent have diabetes.

In perhaps the most alarming statistic in the report, another 79 million adults — or 35 percent — have a condition called prediabetes, a precursor to the disease.

Added together, almost half of all adults are at risk of developing the complications of diabetes, including heart disease and stroke, kidney failure and blindness. Among those 65 and older, half have prediabetes and nearly 27 percent have diabetes.

...
I was first diagnosed with diabetes about a year and a half ago, and I have probably suffered from it for over two years. I currently have it pretty well managed. It takes a tackle box full of pills and a daily shot of a new medication called Victoza. This new medication is like a non evasive lap band that shrinks your appetite and your stomach. It has also helped to reduce my blood pressure to more normal levels. While eye surgery has helped, I still have to deal with double vision when my eyes get tired. I am going to try some corrected lenses for a few months to help the healing process.
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more