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With November marking Diabetes Awareness Month, much attention is being focused on what the Centers for Disease Control calls the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. According to the CDC, those statistics break down like this: “among U.S. residents aged 65 years and older, 10.9 million, or 26.9%, had diabetes in 2010 and an additional 1.9 million people aged 20 years or older were newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2010 in the United States.”
There is also much concern over the CDC’s statistics on those who are pre-diabetic, with the agency reporting that 35 percent of those aged 20 years or older are in that category as well as 50 percent of those 65 years or older. Their statistics results indicated that “the U.S. population in 2010 yields an estimated 79 million American adults aged 20 years or older with pre-diabetes.”
Other statistics by the CDC echo what The American Diabetes Association, calls a “desperate situation.” Those specifics are as follows: “Every 17 seconds, someone is diagnosed with diabetes and each year, diabetes kills more people than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Recent estimates project that as many as 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes in 2050 unless we take steps to stop diabetes.”
Diabetes occurs when one’s body is unable to metabolize blood glucose. This can result in deterioration of the body’s tissues as a result from the lack of glucose. The CDC says that “Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lowerlimb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults in the United States.”
These statistics and outcomes may be daunting but there is a lot you can do on your own to combat type 2 diabetes. Exercise and eating right is an effective way of preventing both and complications due to type 2 diabetes. While exercise is frequently touted as a way to promote weight loss and help with stress management, research also shows it also can help metabolize glucose.
Statistics show that by adopting a healthy diet and daily exercise you can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent, according to the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) study .
For those with pre-diabetes, there is some good news from the Diabetes Prevention Program. “The DPP also showed that some medications may delay the development of diabetes, diet and exercise worked better. Just 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity, coupled with a 5-10% reduction in body weight, produced a 58% reduction in diabetes.”
Online Resources:
“American Diabetes Month – Diabetes.org.” The American Diabetes Association. Web 10 Nov. 2011.
http://www.diabetes.org/in-my-community/programs/american-diabetes-month
“National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2011 – CDC.gov.” The Centers For Disease Control. Web 10 Nov. 2011.
http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2011.pdf
“Diabetes Basics – How To Prevent Prediabetes – Diabetes.org.” The American Diabetes Association. Web 10 Nov. 2011.
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/prevention/pre-diabetes/how-to-prevent-pre-diabetes.html
Joanne Sgro-Killworth is a Television Fitness Expert, Certified Personal Trainer and Sport Nutritionist. She is Certified in Pilates, Pre-natal/Post-Partum, Yoga and Senior Fitness. She specializes in Weight Loss, Post-Rehab and Post Cancer Training.
Joanne's fitness plans and recipes are available globally on her website www.fitnessanswer.com. She resides in the Phoenix, AZ area with her husband, where she runs her personal training business, Fitness Answer, LLC.
Reviewed November 10, 2011
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith
Add a Comment1 Comments
Diabetes is one of the life time diseases. It is a like a life time package which can control with the help of insulin but can not cure. The Diabetes Awareness Month is the the time to make the people aware of diabetes and share some experience and provide some treatments to control diabetes.
February 21, 2012 - 4:12amGestational Diabetes Diet
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