Diabetes

Our health is a big concern and an important factor of life. Our bodies are our vessel for this life, and no matter what illness befalls us, it is important for us to do out best to seek proper medical care when we need it. One very common affliction that many Americans suffer with is that of diabetes.

Diabetes is a chronic, ongoing health condition that is most commonly associated with a spike or severe increase in sugar, or glucose. This spike or increase that is seen in people with diabetes occurs as they begin to manifest diabetes, and it stays with them for life. This glucose increase occurs within the blood of the person.

Basically, a diabetic has low insulin levels, as insulin is the chemical in the human bloodstream that lowers the blood glucose. Insulin is created by the pancreas. An absence of insulin, or an inability of the body to process naturally created insulin is what brings on diabetes.

There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Symptoms of diabetes can include:

Increased bladder activity and urination
Being thirsty all the time
weight loss
hunger regularly
fatigue regularly
skin problems in different areas of the body
wounds that heal very slowly
yeast infections occurring more often than normal
numbness, tingling, and other problems in the feet and toes

There are a lot of causes of diabetes or things that can bring about diabetes, depending on the person. Some of the risk factors for diabetes are things like being overweight already, being obese, leading a sedentary lifestyle, having a family history of diabetes as it is, experiencing hypertension (high blood pressure in layman’s terms), having low levels of good cholesterol, and also having very high levels of triglycerides within the blood.

Diabetes is one of the most concerning health problems in this country, and it is a problem that has grown in this country. Diabetes treatment and different kinds of treatment for diabetes have developed to the point where people who struggle with this health problem now have options for how to address it.

Diabetes has grown considerably as a problem in this country.

The statistics on it are pretty concerning. For example:

There are about twenty-nine million Americans who have diabetes in this country. That’s about nine percent of the population.
On top of that, there are about eight-million people who have diabetes in this country and they do not even know it.
Diabetes does a lot of negative things to a person’s body. For example, diabetes can cause blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, and a lot of other problems and issues for them. Basically, diabetes creates damage to blood vessels, and when blood vessels cannot do their job, the above problems can occur.
More seriously, diabetes also causes strokes, coronary heart disease, and other serious health problems as a manifestation of this blood vessel damage that it does.
Diabetes is a very harsh and high maintenance problem for people. This is to say that people who suffer with diabetes experience about double the medical expenses than those who do not suffer with diabetes.
Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in this country.
Diabetes is a very costly problem in this country too. The “cost” if you will of diabetes in 2012 ranked right in at about two-hundred and forty-five billion dollars. Over one-hundred billion went to the actual healthcare costs of the problem, and the rest went to disability payments, premature death, and loss of employment within the American workforce as a result of it.

There’s no doubt that diabetes causes big problems and difficult issues for people, and this is an issue that truly does create unpleasant life situations for people. When confronted with diabetes, there are approaches and methods of addressing it that are effective.