Diabetes Day

Today is World Diabetes Day. So what, you say? Diabetes isn't all that serious, it it?

Here are a few fun facts from the American Diabetes Association. Did you know that “diabetes kills more people in the United States than AIDS and breast cancer combined?” You probably know that the number one killer in America is heart disease, but did you know that “adults with diabetes are two to four times as likely to die of heart disease as those who don't have diabetes.”

More fun facts: “Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure.” It is the number one “cause of new blindness in adults ages 20 to 74.” It is “responsible for more than 60 percent of all nontraumatic lower-limb amputations.”

The number of Americans with diabetes is growing. The ADA says that if this growth continues at its current rate, one third of babies born in the US in the year 2000 will eventually develop the disease. For racial and ethnic minorities that prediction jumps to one half.

In a time when we are discussing the cost of health care you might want to know that diabetes takes $174 billion out of the economy every year.

Diabetes is an enormous threat to public health, yet it sometimes seems that no one has noticed. Today would be a good time to learn more, to take action, and to begin to stop diabetes.