About Diabetes
Diabetes. A brief overview.
What is type 2 diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is a complicated disease that is related to how the body uses the food you eat. When food is digested, it is changed into glucose, or “blood sugar,” which is the form of fuel your body needs to live. This process can’t work without a hormone called insulin, which is produced in your pancreas. When your body becomes unable to produce enough insulin, or cannot use the insulin it produces in the right way, the amount of glucose in your body becomes too high.
These chronically high glucose levels are harmful to the body, and can eventually cause extensive damage to many of the body’s major organ systems. Therefore, it’s no surprise that people with diabetes have double the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke, or that diabetes is a leading cause of kidney failure, nerve damage, and vision problems that can result in blindness.1
What happens inside your body when you have diabetes? - Dr. Oz
Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S.2
Type 2 diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in the United States, affecting over 24 million adults, with another 57 million considered at high risk for developing the disease—and you might be one of them!3 It is one of the most serious and devastating diseases you can get, not only because of the everyday care and compromises it requires, but because of the many serious and life-threatening complications it leads to.
Type 2 diabetes can inflict extensive and often irreversible damage to vital organs, such as your heart, eyes, and kidneys, as well as the blood vessels and nerves throughout your body. So being at risk for diabetes also puts you at risk for many other conditions that can change your life for the worse, or end it prematurely. Consider these facts:
Every 24 hours in the United States4
- 4,100 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed
- 810 people with diabetes die from the disease
- 230 people with diabetes have a diabetes-related amputation
- 120 diabetes patients will require kidney dialysis or transplant
- 55 people with diabetes go blind
The good news is that clinical studies indicate that type 2 diabetes may be preventable, even in high-risk individuals. The key is early intervention.5,6
Risk factors for diabetes
There are a number of well-recognized risk factors for diabetes.7 Take a look at the list below and check all that apply to you:
- Are you overweight?
- Have you ever been told you have high blood sugar (glucose)?
- Are you being treated for, or have you ever been told, you have high blood pressure?
- Are you being treated for, or have you ever been told, you have high cholesterol?
- Do you have heart disease?
- Do you have a close relative who has diabetes (parent, brother or sister?)
If you are over the age of 30 and answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may want to talk to your clinician about the PreDx Diabetes Risk Score.