The Medical Minute: November is Diabetes Month

By Robert Gabbay

About 23.6 million Americans have diabetes and another 54 million are at risk to develop the disease. As these numbers continue to increase, Diabetes Awareness Month, observed throughout November, is more important than ever.

Diabetes, a disease in which the body can’t regulate the amount of sugar in the blood, currently affects about 8 percent of the population, a number that is increasing rapidly. The rate of those with diabetes has doubled in the past 30 years, and 1.5 million new cases are diagnosed each year.

Risk factors for the disease include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and family history. Certain ethnic groups are at a higher risk. While the cause of diabetes is a mystery, the effects of the disease are not.

It is the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and amputations, and it increases the risk of heart disease and stroke by two-to-four times. One-third of all babies born in 2000 and 50 percent of African-American girls born today will develop diabetes if we don’t approach the disease differently.

Diabetes Awareness Month is also a time to remind those affected by the disease that they are in control. Daily self-management, including attention to an appropriate diet, exercise, adherence to medications and blood glucose monitoring, is the key to good health. Complications can be avoided by reaching evidence-based goals for blood sugar (A1C<7), LDL cholesterol (LDL<100) and blood pressure (BP<130/80) levels. Unfortunately, only 7 percent of Americans are on target for these goals, which shows that the system is broken when it comes to diabetes. We must evaluate different health care delivery methods to help foster behavior change and help patients make good choices.

In addition, yearly eye exams can detect early eye disease; a simple urine test can screen for kidney disease; and a simple foot test can identify patients at risk for foot ulcers and, ultimately, amputations.

While the cause of diabetes isn’t known, we do know how to control it and prevent complications. For more information and to receive the Penn State Diabetes Playbook, a free educational resource about controlling diabetes, visit http://www.pennstatehershey.org/web/diabetesandobesity/home online.

Robert Gabbay is executive director of Penn State Hershey Diabetes and Obesity Institute at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.