Diabetes is More Common Than You May Realize
(NAPSI)—If you or someone you care for is among the 1 in 3 U.S. adults estimated to have prediabetes, a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes, or is among the nearly 40 million Americans the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates have diabetes, chances are good you or the person you care for won’t even know it.
That’s because nearly 90% of those who have prediabetes have no clear symptoms and aren’t aware they have it, and thus have an increased risk of developing diabetes.
One reason may be that people often think diabetes is a disease of old age and aren’t on the lookout. In fact, adults aged 45-64 receive the majority of new diabetes diagnoses in the U.S. and the country has seen increases in disease prevalence among those 18-44.
What You Can Do
Diabetes can affect health and quality of life at any age, but you can protect yourself three ways:
- Be proactive—know your numbers, know your risk: From race and ethnicity, to genetics, weight and more, knowing your risk factors is the first and best step you can take in preventive measures to mitigate your risk of developing diabetes.
- Make good lifestyle choices: Strategies to stay as healthy as possible and prevent diabetes and other chronic diseases include:
• Make healthy food choices.
• Walk and integrate other forms of exercise into your daily routine.
• Stop smoking.
• Track your glucose levels.
• Get preventive testing and screening for kidneys, blood pressure, cholesterol and cancer.
• If you do develop diabetes, work with your primary care provider to develop and follow a diabetes care plan.
Modest weight reduction (5-10% of baseline weight) and increased physical activity to at least 150 minutes per week can reduce the incidence of diabetes by more than 50%. - Know your diabetes status: Get screened early (by age 35), especially if you have any risk factors.
