PHOENIX — The fourth Tuesday of March is Diabetes Alert Day, a day meant to bring awareness to the seriousness of the disease that impacts over 37 million Americans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls Diabetes Alert Day a “wake-up call” for Americans to understand the risk of the disease, which is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
According to Patti Summers, a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner at Optum, a rise in obesity among Americans has led to more diagnoses of diabetes and pre-diabetes.
There are four types of diabetes that impact patients. Gestational, which occurs in women during pregnancies.
Then, there is Type 1 diabetes, which impacts between 5-10% of the patient population, according to the CDC.
With Type 1 diabetes, “Your body just does not make enough insulin by itself,” Summers said. “Your body's attacking itself, and you just don't make enough insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is more common, making up 90-95% of the patient population.
“That is where your body cannot, you're making enough insulin, but it doesn't use it well,” Summer said. “Insulin, it goes round, picks up blood sugar and puts it in the cells. So, you have insulin, you have sugar, but it can't be used.”
Nearly 96 million adults in the U.S. have pre-diabetes, with eight in 10 patients not realizing they have the disease.
“With pre-diabetes, you really don't even have any symptoms,” Summers said. “You can be perfectly normal and not have any signs and symptoms of anything, until your sugars get too high.”
To prevent, or even reverse pre-diabetes, Summer recommends maintaining a healthy lifestyle with food and performing some kind of physical activity at least three times a week.
Additionally, she said healthcare professionals should work with patients to help them understand where to make changes in their eating habits or lifestyles.
“Sometimes, just cutting out regular soda pop can make a huge change,” Summers said. “So, you have to understand [as a provider], what are they eating? What can we do to eliminate what they're eating? What can we change that's reasonable? And we also have to be sensitive to their cultural diet.”
The cost of healthcare is already high in the U.S., but the CDC estimates that patients with diabetes have medical costs that are twice as high compared to those without.
“About (a quarter of) American health care dollars is spent on diabetes. So, it can be very expensive,” Summers said. “So, it's important to do whatever we can to prevent the development and control what we can, what we can control.”
The American Diabetes Association provides resources for those diagnosed with diabetes.
Saint Vincent de Paul also provides a Diabetes Education and Prevention Program. Click here to see if you qualify.