Here’s a look at diabetes, a disease that affects millions of people around the world.
Diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar levels due to defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both. The disease can lead to serious complications such as blindness, kidney damage, cardiovascular disease, limb amputation, and premature death.
Facts
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people living with the potentially fatal disease has quadrupled to around 422 million worldwide since 1980.
34.2 million people in the United States have diabetes, about 10.5% of the population. Of this number, 7.3 million (21.4%) are undiagnosed.
According to preliminary data from the National Vital Statistics System, diabetes was the eighth leading cause of death in the United States in 2020.
There are different types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.
Prediabetes occurs when blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Before developing type 2 diabetes, people almost always have prediabetes. Research has shown that prediabetes can cause some long-term damage to the body.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body’s immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make insulin. This type of diabetes usually affects children and young adults. Only 5-10% of people with diabetes have type 1. Risk factors for type 1 diabetes can be autoimmune, genetic, or environmental diseases. There is no known way to prevent type 1 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn’t make enough insulin or the cells don’t use insulin properly. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and makes up about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes in adults. It’s linked to age, obesity, family history, physical inactivity, and race / ethnicity. It is more common among African Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific islanders. Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, while still rare, is diagnosed more often.
Gestational diabetes is a form of glucose intolerance that is diagnosed during pregnancy. It affects about 4% of all pregnant women. A diagnosis of gestational diabetes does not mean that a woman had diabetes before conception or that she will have diabetes after giving birth.
Other types of diabetes result from genetic diseases, surgery, drugs, infections, and other diseases. Such types of diabetes account for 1% to 5% of all diagnosed cases.
Possible symptoms
Frequent urination
Excessive thirst
Inexplicable weight loss
Extreme hunger
Sudden visual disturbance
Numbness in the hands or feet
fatigue
Dry skin
Slowly healing wounds
Frequent infections
Complications
Adults with diabetes have an approximately two to four times higher death rate from heart disease than adults without diabetes.
The risk of stroke is two to four times higher in people with diabetes.
People with diabetes are at high risk for high blood pressure
Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults aged 20 to 74 years.
Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure.
Between 60% and 70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage or neuropathy.
US Diabetes Statistics
1.5 million new cases are diagnosed in the US each year.
In 2018, about 88 million people aged 18 and over had prediabetes.
Approximately 210,000 people under the age of 20 have type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
$ 327 billion – U.S. diabetes treatment cost in 2017.
Timeline
1921 – Insulin is made by Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best.
November 16, 2012 – The CDC released a report that found that 18 states increased the prevalence of diabetes by 100% or more from 1995 to 2010. There was an increase of at least 50% in 42 states.
January 17, 2014 – For the first time, the US Surgeon General’s report on the health consequences of smoking includes data suggesting that smoking can cause diabetes as well as erectile dysfunction, rheumatoid arthritis, macular degeneration, ectopic pregnancy, and impaired immune function. Compared to non-smokers, smokers have a 30 to 40% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
May 4, 2015 – A study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation discovers a possible link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
September 28, 2016 – The Food and Drug Administration approves what is known as an artificial pancreas. The first of its kind the size of a cell phone monitors and treats patients with type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes.
September 28, 2017 – The FDA approves the “first continuous blood glucose monitoring device” that eliminates the need for patients to prick their fingers for blood samples.
December 2, 2019 – An estimated 18% of adolescents ages 12 to 18 and 24% of young adults ages 19 to 34 in the United States have prediabetes, according to a 2005-2016 JAMA Pediatrics study.
