Why should you care about diabetes?

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

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) and Resurrection Bay Lions Club are asking, “Why should you care about diabetes?”

Chances are, you or someone you love has been affected by diabetes in some way. But even if you haven’t, you need to know that diabetes is the biggest public health crisis of the 21st century, and it continues to grow in epidemic proportions. Nearly 24 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes, including Seward residents of all ages. The death rate for diabetes has continued to grow since 1987, while death rates due to heart disease, stroke and cancer have declined.

Having diabetes places a person at increased risk for a number of serious, even life-threatening complications, including:

• Heart disease and stroke: Adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about 2 to 54 times higher than adults without diabetes.

• Blindness: Diabetic reinopoathy 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 2005.

• Amputations: More than 60 percent of non-traumatic, lower-limb amputations occur in people with diabetes.

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

• A1C (a measure of average glucose): Most people with diabetes should get an A1C test at least twice a year, which measures how well blood glucose has been controlled over the past two-three months. The goal for diabetics is an A1C less than seven percent, which is an estimated average glucose of less than 154 mg/dl.

• Blood Pressure: People with diabetes should have a target blood pressure of less than 130/80 mmHg.

• 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; triglycerides should be below 150 mg/dl.