The American Diabetes Association asks, “Why Should You Care about Diabetes?”

Diabetes is the leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and amputation, in the United States, yet nearly 25 percent of people who have it don’t even know it.

Diabetes is the biggest public health crisis of the 21st century, and it continues to grow to epidemic proportions. Nearly 24 million children and adults have diabetes. Each year, 1.6 million new cases are diagnosed and 57 million Americans have pre-diabetes. The death rate for diabetes has continued to grow since 1987, while the death rates due to heart disease, stroke and cancer have declined.

Having diabetes means the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.

Risk factors for diabetes include:

• Family history
• Being of African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, or Asian American descent
• Having a baby weighing more than nine pounds at birth or had gestational diabetes
• High blood pressure (140/90 or higher)
• Low HDL – Good cholesterol (40 or lower)
• High triglycerides (150 or higher)

A person with diabetes is at increased risk for a number of serious complications, including:

• Heart disease and stroke—Adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about two to four times higher than adults without diabetes.
• Blindness—Diabetic retinopathy causes 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year making diabetes the leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults 20-74 years of age.
• Kidney disease—Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, accounting for 44 percent of new cases in 2002.
• Amputations—More than 60 percent of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations occur in people with diabetes.

Diabetes costs Americans $174 million annually, an increase of 32 percent since 2002. One of every 10 health care dollars spent is attributed to diabetes and one of every five health care dollars is spent caring for someone with diabetes.

The ABCs of diabetes can help to prevent or delay the onset of these serious diabetes complications:

• A1C—Keep your A1C (average blood glucose level over two or three months) less than 7 percent.
• Blood Pressure—Target blood pressure of less than 130/80.
• Cholesterol—LDL (bad) cholesterol should be below 100 mg/dl; HDL (healthy) cholesterol should be above 40 mg/dl for men and 50 mg/dl for women; and triglycerides should be below 150 mg/dl.

Additional tips include:

• Quit smoking
• Be active
• Make healthy food choices
• Talk to your physician about medication