Diabetes means that your bloodsugar is too high. Your blood alwayshas some sugar in it because thebody needs sugar for energy to keepyou going. But too much sugar inthe blood is not good for yourhealth. There are several differenttypes of diabetes, but they all haveto do with the body’s inability toprocess blood sugar.Diabetes is a long-lasting, chronicdisease that can lead to many difficult health problems. Heart disease,kidney disease, blindness, andamputation are just some of themany complications of diabetes.These problems can shorten thelifespan by many years and causegreat misery.
Diabetes used to be untreatable. If you had the disease, you mostlikely would die prematurely. Thatchanged in 1925 when researcherslearned that diabetes can be controlled by injecting insulin. Thiswas not a cure, but it did allow people with the disease to live many years longer. Diabetes was no longer as highly feared as it had once been.But now there is grave new concernover diabetes. The new concern isthat the number of people affectedby the disease is increasing at a rapid rate. The increase is occurringwith one particular form of the disease called type 2 diabetes. Overthe past few decades there has beena big increase in the number of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetesboth in the United States andaround the world.
Health experts say more than 11million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes. Probably 90 to95 percent of all these diagnosedcases of diabetes are type 2. Expertsalso estimate that another 6 millionAmericans have diabetes but don’tknow it.Type 2 diabetes is hitting especiallyhard among certain groups ofAmericans. People at special riskfor the disease include AfricanAmericans, Hispanics, AmericanIndians, Alaska Natives, Asians, and other Pacific Islanders. Elderlypeople and poor people also are atspecial risk. People from these groupsare more likely to get type 2 diabetesand also to suffer from the complications of the disease. Diabetes has become the sixth leadingcause of death in the United States. On average, the risk of death for aperson with diabetes is twice as highas for someone without the disease. The toll from diabetes is greater thanthese numbers reveal, because healthproblems and deaths from diabetesare often credited to other causes. That’s why diabetes has the nickname, “the hidden disease.”The rise of type 2 diabetes is badnews. Fortunately there is also somegood news. Modern research has discovered two important lessons abouttype 2 diabetes. The first lesson isthat many cases of this disease can beprevented. The second lesson is thatfor many people, the health complications of type 2 diabetes can be totallyavoided or delayed for many years.The purpose of this book is to providebasic information about type 2 diabetes: what causes it, how it affectsthe body, and how it can be preventedand treated. This book is NOT atreatment guide, but it does offer general advice that can help youavoid type 2 diabetes and minimizethe complications if you have the disease.
