10-21% of people with diabetes develop it xii. In 2005, a total of 46,739 people initiated treatment for end-stage renal disease (kidney failure) because of diabetes. (The World Almanac and Book of Facts 01-01-2010) i. Amputation xiii. It is the most common cause of non traumatic lower limb amputations xiv. The chance of amputation is 15 to 40 times greater for a diabetic than average American.
Doctors have found biological connections between fat, insulin, and the high blood sugar levels that define the disease. The CDC estimates that 55 percent of adult diabetics are obese, significantly more than the 31 percent prevalence of obesity in the general population. And as obesity has become more common, so, too, has diabetes, suggesting that one may cause the other. Yet the critics dispute claims that diabetes is soaring (even among children), that obesity is the cause, and that weight loss is the solution. A 2003 analysis by the CDC found that “the prevalence of diabetes, either diagnosed or undiagnosed, and of impaired fasting glucose did not appear to increase substantially during the 1990s,” despite the sharp rise in obesity.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68 percent of the people in our country are overweight. Half of that 68 percent, or 34 percent of our population is obese (Overweight Prevalence). Weight loss basically boils down to burning more calories that you eat (Staff, Counting Calories: Getting back to weight-loss basics), but this is easier said than done for some people. What do you do when you’ve tried diet after diet and nothing has worked? More and more people are turning to gastric bypass surgery.
I knew the use of Ritalin was wide spread, but I had no idea the extent. Today in the United States approximately 2 million children are diagnosed with ADD and ADHD (Treva 1999). It is more common in boys than girls with boys having an occurrence 2 to 3 times more often than girls have. The production of Ritalin has increased seven-fold in the last 8 years and 90% of it is consumed in the United States (Gibbs 1998). Shouldn’t that cause us to question the sheer number of children we have sedated in this country?
There are two principal classes of diabetes - type 1 and type 2. 1. Type 1 diabetes, also referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus because it requires the administration of insulin, is an autoimmune disease where there is destruction of the insulin-producing (beta) cells in the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas. Before the isolation of insulin in 1922, type 1 diabetes was fatal. It can occur at any age, but most often it is children who develop this type of diabetes.
The cost of health insurance is continuing to rise which intern is making it difficult for Americans to provide health care for themselves and their families. Nationalizing health care would make health care more affordable to all Americans. Americans would be ensured the best health insurance possible. According to David Himmelstein, “Health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 8 years, rising 3.7times faster than wages in the past 8 years, and increasing co-pays and deductibles threaten access to care. Many insurance plans cover only a limited number of doctors’ visits or hospital days, exposing families’ to unlimited financial liability.
In the UK, the average prevalence of people with diabetes is 4.26%. Therefore the known diagnosed population is now 2.8 million people according to Diabetes UK, reports and statistics, diabetes prevalence 2010. This statistics shows that the health related state of diabetes is increasing at a distressing rate (Diabetes UK, 2010). Diabetes is one of the Long Term conditions that makes up a fifth of population, ages over 60 and the over 85s are the quickest developing sector. At the moment, 15.4 million people in England report living with a Long Term condition and this is conceived to rise to 18 million by 2025 (DH, 2008).
There is not one part of the world left untouched by the epidemic of obesity. Though it was once just a problem in wealthy nations, obesity now affects countries from all economic levels. This new epidemic brings with it poor health and low productivity. Since 1980, the worldwide rate of obesity has almost doubled with 200 million men and 300 million women being obese (Popkin, 2011). The obesity rate in children has been on the rise as well.
Hispanics are at a greater risk of developing diabetes Type 2. Latinos and Hispanics are twice as likely to have complications like nerve damage, heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure and blindness due to diabetes. In Latinos and Hispanics the rate for developing diabetes at an early age is higher, around the age of 20. Physicians are twice more likely to diagnose Mexican Americans with diabetes than non-Hispanic and their chance of dying from the disease is 50% higher than Hispanic whites. Diabetes is the 6th leading cause of death in Hispanics/Latinos living in the United States and 4th leading cause for Hispanic/Latino
In Washington state alone children age 2 -5 were 18.4% were overweight and 14.4% were considered obese. Obesity is a major risk factor for many serious health conditions including type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure and certain cancers, and among youth these diseases are at an all-time high. The most striking fact to me is that during the past 40 years obesity rates for children age 3-11 nearly tripled from 5% to 14$ and more than tripled for adolescents age 12-19 n from 5% top 17.1%. Some of the causes as stated on the National Heart Lung and blood Institute were lack of exercise, oversize food portions, lack of access to healthy food, food advertising, and parents work schedules. Also some common factors such as genetics and cultural environment experts have agreed that are a cause of childhood obesity.