November is Diabetes Awareness Month. Do you or someone you love have suffer from diabetes? This month is set aside to educate the public and to raise funds for the cure. Many companies, blogs, websites and newspapers are getting involved in spreading the word. One in 3 Americans will develop diabetes in their lifetime. With statistics like that surely you will know someone with this disease. However, many are still unaware of what this disease is, who it affects and why. Is there anything you can do to help prevent yourself from becoming diabetic? What steps can you take to make others aware?
Diabetes is classified as a metabolism disorder. Our bodies break down food through the digestive process to produce our main fuel; glucose. Glucose is a form of sugar in the blood. Glucose needs to enter our cells in order to be used properly. However, if the pancreas is not producing insulin than this process is hindered or stopped. Very simplistically, a person with diabetes does not produce insulin or produces too little insulin to handle the process of glucose being converted into energy.
Here are some statistics from the American Diabetes Association:
17.9m people are diagnosed with diabetes
5.7m people are undiagnosed with diabetes
57m people have pre-diabetes
186,300 (0.22%) people under 20 have diabetes
1 in every 400 to 600 under 20-year olds have Type 1 diabetes
2m adolescents have pre-diabetes
23.5m (10.7%) of those over 20 have diabetes
12.2m of those over 60 have diabetes
12m men (11.2%) have diabetes
11.5m women (10.2%) have diabetes
Please continue to read more posts through this month to answer some questions on diabetes.
There is a cute little shop on Café Press where you can purchase items to support Diabetes Awareness Month. The picture shown in this blog is one of the items available for sell. Please stop by and take a look at all the wonderful items.
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