Healthy Living Newsletter

HEALTH TIP
November is American Diabetes Month

Why should you care about diabetes? It is the leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and amputation, yet nearly 25 percent of people who have it don’t even know it. This November, during American Diabetes Month, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) wants you to know about diabetes.

Chances are, you — or someone you love — have been affected by diabetes in some way. But even if you haven’t been, you need to know that diabetes is the biggest public health crisis of the twenty-first century and it continues to grow to epidemic proportions. Nearly 24 million children and adults have diabetes. The death rate for diabetes has continued to grow since 1987, while the death rates due to heart disease, stroke and cancer have declined.

Having diabetes places a person at risk for a number of serious, even life-threatening complications, including:

• Heart disease and stroke: Adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about two to four times higher than adults without diabetes.
• Blindness: Diabetic retinopathy causes 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year, making diabetes the leading cause of new cases in blindness in adults 20-74 years of age.
• Kidney disease: Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, accounting for 44 percent of new cases in 2002.
• Amputations: More than 60 percent of nontraumatic lower-limb amputations occur in people with diabetes.

For more information, visit the American Diabetes Association at www.diabetes.org; or call toll-free: 1 (888) DIABETES (342-2382).