StemCell Therapy

Every 21 seconds another person in the United States is diagnosed with diabetes, according to the ADA. That's 4,110 people in America diagnosed with the disease every 24 hours. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all those cases. The risk for developing the disease also increases drastically in people age 45 and older, and after age 65 it increases exponentially.

There has also been a troubling rise in the number of adolescents developing both prediabetes and diabetes. Weight has a lot to do with it. Among adolescents, ages 12 to 19, about 1 in 5 are considered to have obesity, and about 1 in 11 (9.1 percent) are considered to have extreme obesity, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

"Nutrition for adolescents is the cornerstone of treatment," Cefalu said. "People need access to adequate nutrition, and you have to get that information in their hands."

Testing for prediabetes in children and adolescents should be considered for those who are overweight or obese, and who have two or more additional risk factors for diabetes, including having a family history of type 2 diabetes, or who are African American, Native American, Latino, or Asian Pacific Islanders. Nearly half of Asian and Hispanic Americans with diabetes are undiagnosed.

Health-care specialists say getting people to change their behavior isn't easy. "Telling people to lose weight does not give them enough information. It is not a message that helps and supports them," Albright said.

To teach people how to change and maintain a new set of lifestyle habits, the CDC is also promoting its National Diabetes Prevention Program, which was initiated in 2010.

Just by participating and staying in the program, prediabetics can lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 58 percent over three years, and by 71 percent for people over age 60. "We want to help them determine what is realistic and doable so they can make real life changes that are sustainable," Albright said.

A DDP program can cost as much as $500 a year. (The CDC-recognized organizations delivering these programs determine the cost, which can vary depending on factors such as the size and experience of the organization offering it.) Diabetes prevention programs are growing in number and participation, but are still underutilized, according to the ADA.

See the article here:
Type 2 diabetes may hit 84 million Americans, and they don't know it - CNBC

This entry was posted on September 1, 2017 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Diabetes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |