Are You or Your Children At Risk?

07/29/08 Prevention

An estimated half million individuals are walking around with diabetes and don't know it. In the United States the number of people living unaware of their diabetes sits at 5.7 million. While statistics for undiagnosed children have not yet been estimated, 186,300 of them have been diagnosed in the United States. Those are alarming numbers.

There are behaviors that can be controlled which reduce the possibility of developing diabetes. They apply to children as well. The list below gives a brief synopsis of the factors that can be changed:

Weight. Control your weight by eating a healthy diet. The more body fat you carry the harder it is for your body to synthesize glucose. It can encourage insulin resistance, or in other words, the body can't use the insulin it produces.

Smoking. There is a correlation between smoking and the ability to control glucose. Smoking raises your blood sugar.

Inactivity. Without exercise muscles lose tone and metabolism drops, allowing fat stores to increase. It also is detrimental to the cardiovascular system and blood pressure is often out of control.

If you are diagnosed with diabetes there is a good chance someone in your immediate family may be diabetic as well and may be unaware they are at risk. That's an example of an uncontrollable risk factor. Here are some others:

Age. People older than 40 years are at higher risk than younger adults, but because of poor diet and inactivity among our youth, type 2 diabetes is being seen more frequently in school-age children and teens.

Genetics. Your family history may predispose you to the illness. That doesn't mean you will get diabetes, but it means it is even more important to manage controllable risk factors.

Ethnicity. Your ancestry can increase your risk. People from Africa, Latin America, North America (Native Americans), Asia, and the Pacific Islands are more vulnerable.

Corie Richter is a nurse and physician's assistant who started her career as a health educator. The survivor of a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and partially successful quadruple bypass surgery, she did not let her health challenges hamper her. Neither the limitations of spinal surgery nor of diabetes have deterred her from a mission of service. She now encourages others through writing and speaking engagements to master their disabilities through education and a proactive attitude.