[/caption]Carol Forsloff - It’s worse than you thought. In fact, most people simply shrug and name a friend or relative headed for disaster, as it is so commonplace; but the numbers are staggering and the consequences of the disease are far beyond what most folks might even imagine, so here are the new numbers and the future that might bring.
The Centers for Disease Control underlines how serious things have become for diabetes. At least half of all American adults will have diabetes by the year 2020, if there isn’t a change in lifestyle for the millions of vulnerable people. 135 million in 2020 – and cost society $3.35 billion by decade’s end. In addition, diabetes is becoming one of the most widespread and devastating diseases of the century.
The American Diabetes Association recommends people consider eating and living like a diabetic if they are diagnosed with pre-diabetes. In fact, many doctors, like Ana Pere of Natchitoches, believe there is no such thing as pre-diabetes, as the characteristics eventually become worse if an individual continues with the same patterns of behavior. So cutting down on carbohydrates and being mindful of sugar imbalance is important for those testing at that pre-diabetes period. 79 million Americans are said to be pre-diabetic. Three years ago doctors made a specific point of telling people that pre-diabetes must be treated in order to prevent the huge numbers of diabetics that are predicted to occur by the end of the present decade.
So how can someone find out if he or she is pre-diabetic? There are three different tests that can be administered to determine whether a person has prediabetes. These are:
- The A1C test
- The fasting plasma glucose test (FPG)
- or the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).
The blood glucose levels measured following these tests determine whether you have a normal metabolism, or whether you have prediabetes or diabetes.
Problems associated with diabetes can impede not just physical but mental and emotional functioning as well. Because it is a progressive disease, it means the symptoms continue to worsen with age and severity of the disease. It can cause depression, neuropathic pain, amputation, blindness, liver and kidney damage as well as heart attack and stroke. Some of the more subtle signs such as skin irritations, fatigue, irritability, depression can gradually increase in frequency and severity over many years before the actual diagnosis of diabetes.
While much of medicine is devoted to diabetics physical symptoms and the medical costs, the emotional costs can be devastating as well, bringing trauma into relationships and misunderstanding when it is often the disease doing the “talking” as well as the “walking” and the painful consequences that can occur when diabetes takes charge of a life.
