WASHINGTON — Diabetes is surging nationally and across the D.C. region. Millions have the disease and many don’t know it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 29.1 million Americans have diabetes. Twenty-one million have been diagnosed, but eight million diabetics have not.
That amounts to an overall diabetes rate of 9.3 percent of the American population. Locally, we mirror the national statistics. The CDC says the diabetes rate is 9.8 percent in Virginia, 9.4 percent in Maryland and 9 percent in D.C.
“Cases in the U.S. nationally as well as in the local area are increasing every year,” says Dr. Joshua Cohen, a professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Cohen says other government statistics put the lifetime risk for Americans of developing diabetes at about 40 percent. And the cost of treating all these diabetics is enormous. The American Diabetes Association puts the national tab for 2012 at over $245 billion, up from $174 billion in 2007.
A big part of the problem is too many people unknowingly walk around with type 2 diabetes — the most common form of the disease — for years, opening the door to severe complications.
“These complications don’t suddenly appear overnight,” says Cohen, who is also director of the Diabetes Center at the GW Medical Faculty Associates. They include eye, kidney and nerve problems, and an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
That is why it is so important for patients to know their family history. And while you can’t control your genes, there are other risk factors that can be significantly reduced. “The two biggies are obesity and physical activity,” says Cohen, who notes it doesn’t take much to make a big difference.
“Moderate physical exercise — say, on the order of 150 minutes a week of moderate physical exercise — and moderate weight loss on the order of five to seven percent of body weight, is associated with a marked decrease in the subsequent risk of developing diabetes,” he explains.
The American Diabetes Association has long championed the need for more public awareness of the disease — which is the seventh largest cause of death in the United States. And at no time of the year is that message of awareness louder than in November, which is National Diabetes Month.
Cohen says we all need to be more self-aware. That includes making the necessary lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the body does not use insulin properly, resulting in high levels of sugar — or glucose — in the blood. It’s also important to make a blood sugar test part of a regular check-up, along with screenings for high cholesterol and other important screenings.
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