Diabetes Alert Day
Diabetes is a disease characterized by high glucose levels in the blood that result from the body’s inability to produce and/or use insulin. When you eat or drink, your body breaks down the food into a simple sugar called glucose. Then, insulin helps convert glucose into energy for your body. If a person has diabetes, the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin and glucose builds up in the bloodstream. High levels of blood glucose can cause serious health problems.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. It affects nearly 26 million children and adults, or 8.3% of the population, in the United States. Many more are at high risk of developing diabetes. Of people ages 65 and above, 11 million have diabetes, or one in four people. Not only is diabetes bad for your health, it can increase your medical costs by 2.3 times compared to your medical costs if you did not have diabetes. In 2012, diabetes costs were $245 billion in the United States.
Individually, symptoms of diabetes may go unnoticed as a sign of something wrong. Sometimes, people have no symptoms at all. However, early detection and treatment of diabetes can decrease chances of developing complications such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, nervous system disease, and amputation. Symptoms of diabetes include:
• frequent urination
• increased thirst
• extreme hunger
• unexplained weight loss
• fatigue and irritability
• blurred vision
• sores that are slow to heal
• tingling or numbness in the hands and feet
• frequent skin, gum, or bladder infections
Obesity and lack of physical activity are two of the most common risk factors for type 2 diabetes. As you age, your risk of developing diabetes increases significantly as you reach 45 years old, and again as you age past 65 years. Type 2 diabetes also tends to run in families. Other risk factors include: high blood pressure, high-fat and carbohydrate diet, gestational diabetes, high alcohol intake, and ethnicity or race—African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans are at higher risk for developing diabetes compared to other ethnic groups.
A healthy lifestyle can help you reduce your risk of diabetes. You can stay healthier longer by taking a few positive steps to change your life: eat a healthy diet, stay active, and maintain a healthy weight. Smoking can cause many health issues, including increased risk for diabetes, so if you smoke, it is beneficial to your health to try to quit. Finally, if you know you are at higher risk for diabetes because of family history, age, race, or if you had gestational diabetes, it is important to be proactive about living a healthy lifestyle to help reduce your risk for developing diabetes.
If you think you or a loved one may be diabetic or are at risk of developing diabetes, see a doctor right away to have a simple blood test done to check your blood sugar levels. If you are diabetic, it’s important to take steps to get your blood sugar levels under control as soon as possible.
Diabetes care supplies are available direct to your doorstep from HDIS. Your supplies ship for free on the same day you place the order. We will take care of all the paperwork with your insurance provider. Contact us today for more information.
Information from American Diabetes Association