Diabetes Facts – The Hard Numbers
* About 16 million Americans have diabetes, but half of them are undiagnosed so the federal government recommends anyone older than 45 to be screened for diabetes.
* About 700,000 Americans have Type I diabetes, which usually surfaces during the first 20 years of life when people produce little or no insulin of their own. About 15.3 million have Type II, or adult-onset, diabetes.
* The cause of diabetes is unknown, but risk factors include being overweight or underactive and having family members with diabetes. It is a chronic, incurable disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, the hormone that allows the sugar glucose to enter and fuel the body’s cells.
* Symptoms include frequent urination, unusual thirst, extreme hunger, unusual weight loss, extreme fatigue, irritability, blurred vision, slow-healing cuts and bruises, tingling and numbness in the hands or feet and recurring infections of the skin, gums or bladder.
* Diabetes and its complications kill more than 178,000 people a year, making it the fourth leading cause of death by disease. Ohio has the country’s second-highest death rate stemming from diabetes, more than 9,000 a year.
* Between 12,000 and 24,000 people a year lose their sight to diabetes, which is the leading cause of blindness in people ages 20 to 74.
* Leg amputations are 27.7 times more common among people with diabetes, which is the leading cause of lower-extremity amputations not associated with injuries. About two-thirds of diabetics have mild to severe form of diabetic nerve damage.
* People with diabetes are two to four more times likely to have coronary heart disease and stroke.
* Diabetes accounts for 13 percent of total U.S. health care expenses – more than $100 billion a year.
* Diabetes complications can be reduced by an average of 60 percent when diabetics have the knowledge and supplies they need to control their blood sugar.
* The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists estimates that intensive self-management of diabetes would save $54 million a year in health-care expenses, and give an average patient 15 more years without major complications and five more years of life.
Check back soon for more Diabetes Numbers & Facts.
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