Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a syndrome characterized by disordered metabolism and inappropriately high blood sugar (hyperglycaemia) resulting from either low levels of the hormone insulin or from abnormal resistance to insulin's effects.

Insulin is an anabolic hormone that helps the glucose get into your cells to give them energy, and also controls the body's fatty acid metabolism. There are two types of diabetes - type 1 diabetes that usually starts in early childhood and has higher genetic risk and the more common type 2 diabetes that can start in obese kids and adults. Up to 90 percent of the risk of type 2 diabetes is considered preventable according to research from Yale University and other places.

Etiology
The incidence of type 2 diabetes has gone up significantly in populations around the world including the United States in the past 50 years or so. This has to do with the misguided efforts at the various Governments including that of the United States to deal with the obesity epidemic. As most of the efforts at curbing obesity were too "fat centric" such as the United States failed and now withdrawn food pyramid, this lead to an explosion of insulin resistance as all these so called low fat foods tend to be high glycemic.

It is postulated that increased use of cereal grains might also have contributed to the raise in the epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes that some call it as diabetesity.

Facts on Diabetes
According to the Center's for Disease Control, here are the facts on diabetes:


 * Adults aged 65 years and older, 10.9 million, or 26.9% or had diabetes in 2010.
 * About 215,000 people younger than 20 years had diabetes (type 1 or • type 2) in the United States in 2010.
 * *About 1.9 million people aged 20 years or older were newly • diagnosed with diabetes in 2010 in the United States.
 * In 2005–2008, based on fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1c levels, • 35% of U.S. adults aged 20 years or older had prediabetes (50% of adults aged 65 years or older). Applying this percentage to the entire U.S. population in 2010 yields an estimated 79 million American adults aged 20 years or older with prediabetes.
 * Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lower-• limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults in the United States.
 * Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke.•
 * Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.•
 * Diabetes affects 25.8 million people
 * 8.3% of the U.S. population

Diagnosed with diabetes

 * 18.8 million people in the United States are currently diagnosed with diabetes.

Not diagnosed with diabetes Men - 13.0 million or 11.8% of all men aged 20 years or older Women - 12.6 million or 10.8% of all women aged 20 years or older
 * 7.0 million people have diabetes but not yet diagnosed.
 * Age ≥20 years about 25.6 million or 11.3% of all people in this age group have diabetes
 * Age ≥65 years 10.9 million or 26.9% of all people in this age group

Non-Hispanic whites and diabetes 15.7 million or 10.2% of all non-Hispanic whites aged 20 years or older  Non-Hispanic blacks and diabetes 4.9 million or 18.7% of all non-Hispanic blacks aged 20 years or older.

Diabetes Statistics per BRFSS survey 2010 in the Unites States

People in the United States were asked by telephone this question: Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have diabetes?

Here are the answers from the BRFSS survey in 2010. As can be seen from the following answers, most people with prediabetes are not aware of their situation. According to the statistics on prediabetes and metabolic syndrome, up to a third of the adult population in fact have prediabetes although only a small fraction of them are actually aware of it.

= Diabetes Topics A-Z = A-Z List of Topics

A

 * The A1C Test and Diabetes
 * African Americans and Diabetes
 * African Americans and Kidney Disease
 * Alternative Devices for Taking Insulin
 * Alternative Medical Therapies for Diabetes
 * American Indians, Alaska Natives and Diabetes
 * Anemia of Inflammation and Chronic Disease
 * Artificial Pancreas
 * Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Diabetes
 * Autonomic Neuropathy

B

 * Basal insulin
 * Blood glucose
 * Blood sugar
 * Breastfeeding and Diabetes

C

 * Carbohydrate Counting
 * Carbohydrates
 * Children and Diabetes
 * Complementary and Alternative Medical Therapies for Diabetes
 * Complications of Diabetes
 * Continuous Glucose Monitoring

D

 * Depression and Diabetes
 * Devices for Taking Insulin
 * Diabetes and African Americans
 * Diabetes and American Indians/Alaska Natives
 * Diabetes and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders
 * Diabetes and Hispanics/Latinos
 * Diabetes and Pregnancy
 * Diabetes Causes
 * Diabetes Diagnosis
 * The Diabetes Dictionary
 * Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Stroke
 * Diabetes Medicines
 * Diabetes Prevention for American Indians
 * Diabetic Diet
 * Diabetic Eye Disease
 * Diabetic Foot
 * Kidney Disease of Diabetes)
 * Diabetic Neuropathies
 * Diabetic Retinopathy
 * Diagnosis of Diabetes and Prediabetes
 * Diagnostic Testing for Diabetes and Prediabetes
 * Dictionary of Diabetes Terms
 * Gestational Diabetes
 * Diet and Diabetes
 * Diabetes Prevention Program)

E

 * Eating and Diabetes
 * Erectile Dysfunction
 * Exercise
 * Exercise and Diabetes
 * Eye Disease and Diabetes

F

 * Family History of Diabetes
 * Diagnosis of Diabetes and Prediabetes
 * Foot Care and Diabetes
 * Foot Problems

G

 * Gastroparesis and Diabetes
 * Gestational Diabetes
 * Glaucoma
 * Glucose Meters
 * Glucose Monitoring
 * Glucose Tolerance Test See Diagnosis of Diabetes and Prediabetes
 * Glycated Hemoglobin

H

 * Heart Disease and Diabetes
 * Hemoglobin A1C
 * High Blood Pressure and Diabetes
 * Hispanics/Latinos and Diabetes
 * Hypertension
 * Hypoglycemia

I

 * Impotence See Erectile Dysfunction
 * Insulin

J

 * Juvenile Diabetes

K

 * Ketones
 * Kidney Disease of Diabetes

L

 * Loss of Bladder Control
 * Low Blood Glucose See Hypoglycemia
 * Low Vision See Diabetic Retinopathy

M

 * Meal Planning and Diabetes
 * Meal Planning Using Carbohydrate Counting
 * Medications for Diabetes
 * Metabolic syndrome also see Insulin Resistance and Prediabetes
 * MODY see Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus and Maturity-onset Diabetes of the Young

N

 * Neuropathy See Diabetic Neuropathies
 * Nutrition See Eating and Diabetes

O

 * Oral Glucose Tolerance Test OGTT

P

 * Pancreatic Islet Transplantation
 * PCOS See Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
 * Peripheral Neuropathy
 * Physical activity
 * Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
 * Prediabetes
 * Pregnancy and Type 1 Diabetes


 * Pregnancy and Type 2 Diabetes

R

 * Recipe and Meal Planner Guide
 * Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes

S

 * Stomach Nerve Damage See Gastroparesis and Diabetes
 * Sugar
 * Syndrome X See Metabolic syndrome

T

 * Type 1 diabetes
 * Type 2 diabetes