Liberty County Branch NAACP
Home ]
                    |
|||||||
 |
|||||||
|
|||||||
All About DiabetesDiabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. The cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise appear to play roles. There are 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease. In order to determine whether or not a patient has pre-diabetes or diabetes, health care providers conduct a Fasting Plasma Glucose Test (FPG) or an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). Either test can be used to diagnose pre-diabetes or diabetes. The American Diabetes Association recommends the FPG because it is easier, faster, and less expensive to perform. With the FPG test, a fasting blood glucose level between 100 and 125 mg/dl signals pre-diabetes. A person with a fasting blood glucose level of 126 mg/dl or higher has diabetes. In the OGTT test, a person's blood glucose level is measured after a fast and two hours after drinking a glucose-rich beverage. If the two-hour blood glucose level is between 140 and 199 mg/dl, the person tested has pre-diabetes. If the two-hour blood glucose level is at 200 mg/dl or higher, the person tested has diabetes.
Major Types of Diabetes Type 1 diabetes Results from the body's failure to produce insulin, the hormone that "unlocks" the cells of the body, allowing glucose to enter and fuel them. It is estimated that 5-10% of Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes have type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes Results from insulin resistance (a condition in which the body fails to properly use insulin), combined with relative insulin deficiency. Most Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. Gestational diabetes Gestational diabetes affects about 4% of all pregnant women - about 135,000 cases in the United States each year. Pre-diabetes Pre-diabetes is a condition that occurs when a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. There are 54 million Americans who have pre-diabetes, in addition to the 20.8 million with diabetes. Diabetes Complications Diabetes is associated with an increased risk for a number
of serious, sometimes life-threatening complications and
certain populations experience an even greater threat. Good
diabetes management can help reduce your risk. However many
people are not even aware that they have diabetes until they
develop one of its complications. Men and Heart Disease: Deaths from heart
disease in men with diabetes have decreased by only 13 percent
compared to a 36 percent decrease in men without diabetes. Nerve Damage: Diabetic neuropathy is a serious complication of diabetes that affects millions of people every day. Nerves damaged by diabetic neuropathy can cause stinging or burning sensations, tingling, pain, numbness or weakness in the hands and feet. Diabetic neuropathy puts you at risk for foot injury, infection, even amputation. Hypertension Anyone can develop high blood pressure, also called hypertension. African Americans are at higher risk for this serious disease than any other race or ethnic group. High blood pressure tends to be more common, happens at an earlier age, and is more severe for many African Americans. The good news is that high blood pressure can be controlled—and better yet, it can be prevented! What is blood pressure? Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against your blood vessels. Your blood pressure is at its greatest when your heart contracts and is pumping blood. This is systolic blood pressure. When your heart rests between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is called diastolic blood pressure. Blood pressure is always given as these two numbers: the systolic and diastolic pressures. The numbers are usually written one above or before the other, with systolic first, for example, 120/80. Is high blood pressure really a big deal? YES! When your blood pressure is high, your heart has to work harder than it should to pump blood to all parts of the body. High blood pressure is called the “silent killer” because most people feel healthy and don’t even know that they have it. If it is not treated, high blood pressure can cause:
In the United States and most other societies, blood pressure and the prevalence of high blood pressure rise progressively with increasing age. High blood pressure is among the most common and most important of the risk factors for cardiovascular-renal disease. To date, blood pressure-related risk reduction efforts have almost uniformly revolved around the paradigm of hypertension detection and treatment. Despite the clear benefits of treating established hypertension, this approach alone will not prevent all of the blood pressure- related cardiovascular-renal disease in the community. Blood pressure-related vascular complications can occur prior to the onset of established hypertension because the blood pressure- cardiovascular disease risk relationship is continuous and progressive, even within the normotensive blood pressure range. Furthermore, it is difficult to ensure that all hypertensives are detected and treated adequately. In addition, many hypertensive treatment regimens are expensive, especially those including new drugs, and almost all carry the potential for some adverse effects. For these reasons, hypertension treatment represents an important but incomplete response to the population burden of blood pressure-related cardiovascular disease. Primary prevention of hypertension is a natural extension of hypertension treatment. It provides an attractive opportunity to interrupt and prevent the continuing costly cycle of managing hypertension and its complications. Primary prevention of hypertension can be accomplished through interventions with the general population (population strategy) with the objective of achieving a downward shift in the distribution of blood pressure. This approach can be complemented by special attempts to lower blood pressure among populations that are most likely to develop hypertension (targeted strategy). The latter includes: African Americans, persons with a high normal blood pressure, those with a family history of hypertension, and individuals with one or more lifestyle factors that contribute to age-related increases in blood pressure. These lifestyle factors include a high sodium chloride intake, excessive consumption of calories, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol consumption, and deficient intake of potassium. They have formed the basis for intervention strategies that have shown promise in the prevention of high blood pressure. The evidence is less convincing for stress management and for supplementation with calcium, magnesium, fish oils, or fiber, and for alteration in macronutrient consumption. In many instances, however, the data are insufficient to make a final judgment on the potential role of these factors in the primary prevention of hypertension. Intervention programs conducted in community-based and practice- based settings indicate that the desired lifestyle changes are potentially feasible. Achievement of the intervention goals has, however, been constrained by a number of societal barriers, including a lack of satisfactory food choices and the absence of a national campaign to foster adoption of the population-based and targeted intervention strategies necessary to prevent high blood pressure. The National High Blood Pressure Education Program is well positioned to provide leadership for such a campaign. Goals of the campaign should include increased efforts to promote foods that are lower in sodium chloride and calorie content and higher in potassium content, and to promote physical activity and moderation in alcohol consumption. To reach these goals, additional public education to underscore the importance of lifestyle factors in the development of hypertension, as well as enhanced education and support of health care providers to encourage and facilitate their active participation in hypertension prevention activities, will be necessary. Objectives for national change in the prevalence of factors that increase the public s risk of developing high blood pressure should be established, where they do not yet exist. Finally, additional attention needs to focus on research questions related to the prevention of high blood pressure. Although challenging, the potential for benefit makes primary prevention of hypertension an important national policy goal for the next decade.
Another Source of Health Observances by Month: National Health Information Center http://www.healthfinder.gov/library/nho/nho.aspUpdated
Friday, May 02, 2008 E-mail:
president@libertycountynaacp.org webmaster@libertycountynaacp.org
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Contact: webmaster@libertycountynaacp.org
Copyright © 2007 Liberty County NAACP. All rights reserved.
Revised: December 2007
Contact: webmaster@libertycountynaacp.org
Site
Designed, Developed and Maintained by The Butterfly Group, LLC