Diabetes on the Rise Again: 105 Million in U.S. Have Diabetes

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a new estimate of how many Americans have diabetes, and it’s even higher than previously reported.

Diabetes now affects nearly 26 million Americans, up 9 percent from the 2008 estimate. In all, that’s over 8 percent of the U.S. population, or 1 in 12 Americans.

Broken down further, this includes nearly 19 million diagnosed and 7 million who do not yet know they have the disease. Another 79 million people are suffering from pre-diabetes, which means your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes (if left untreated, the majority of pre-diabetes cases will progress to type 2 diabetes within 10 years).

These are numbers of epidemic proportions, signaling a health care emergency that is unnecessarily robbing quality years from millions of Americans’ lives.

When you have type 2 diabetes, first your cells become resistant to insulin, which prompts your body to produce increasingly higher levels of this hormone. This is a health risk in and of itself, as high insulin levels can lead to weight gain and high blood pressure while increasing your risk of developing heart disease and cancer.

It can even make your insulin resistance worse. Further, eventually your pancreas can lose its ability to produce insulin altogether, putting you at dangerous risk of high blood sugar levels and their associated complications.

So type 2 diabetes is a dangerous disease, not one to be ignored or taken lightly. As the CDC reported in their most recent 2011 Fact Sheet, diabetes is:

The leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lower-limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among U.S. adults

A major cause of heart disease and stroke

The seventh leading cause of death in the United States

If you have type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, it’s important you find out about the natural treatment options available that can help you restore your health — often without insulin and without medicines. And, if you have any risk factors for diabetes and pre-diabetes, it’s also important that you take proactive, lifestyle-based steps now to stay healthy and stay away from becoming the next diabetes statistic.

The Functional Endocrinology Center of Colorado is passionate about improving the lives and lifestyles of individuals with Type II Diabetes and Hashimoto’s Disease. Call us at 303-302-0930 to schedule your complimentary consultation.