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#12
Long-Term Tight Control of
Diabetes is Critical and Difficult with 50% Not Aware of A1c Goals
African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely to develop serious
complications resulting from uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.
The most
effective way to measure how well a person’s diabetes is being
controlled over time is the A1C test, which provides a picture of
blood sugar levels during a three-month period. Although the A1C
test is a key tool in the management of diabetes, nearly 40
percent of respondents with type 2 diabetes could not define the
purpose of the test and 50 percent of the respondents with type 2
diabetes did not know what their target A1C level should be.
Experts recommend a goal of 6.5 –7.0 percent for optimal diabetes
management.
“Inadequately treated diabetes, as indicated by higher than
recommended A1C levels, is dangerous because of the potential risk
of long-term complications. Research shows that for every percent
above the A1C target level, a patient’s risk of cardiovascular
disease also increases,” stated Samuel Dagogo-Jack, M.D., FRCP,
professor of medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism,
University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine.
“Tight control of diabetes is possible with diet, exercise and
combination therapies, including drugs that target insulin
resistance. These insulin sensitizers help patients use their own
natural insulin more effectively.”
Ethnicity, Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has labeled
diabetes “the epidemic of our time,” with the greatest increase in
certain ethnic populations. According to the U.S. Office of
Minority Health, the prevalence of diabetes among
African-Americans is about 70 percent higher than in Caucasians
and the prevalence in Hispanics is nearly double that of
Caucasians. Currently, it is estimated that 2.3 million
African-Americans and 1.2 million Hispanics have type 2 diabetes
in the U.S. alone.
Despite
ethnicity being a key risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes
and its related complications such as heart disease, 50 percent of
Hispanics and 48 percent of African-Americans are not very or not
at all concerned with developing type 2 diabetes. Similarly, 44
percent of Hispanics and 51 percent of African-Americans are not
very or not at all concerned with developing heart disease.
“Educating high-risk populations about the link between ethnicity,
type 2 diabetes and heart disease is a critical step in managing
this epidemic,” stated B. Waine Kong, Ph.D., J.D., chief executive
officer, ABC. “The ABC urges everyone at high risk to talk to his
or her doctor about ways to manage type 2 diabetes and help
prevent complications.”
Diabetes is
the sixth leading cause of death by disease in the U.S. with 75
percent of diabetes-related deaths attributable to cardiovascular
disease. In fact, those with diabetes are two to four times more
likely to have heart disease than people without diabetes. In
addition, having type 2 diabetes increases heart attack risk as
much as heart disease does for a person without diabetes. People
with diabetes tend to experience several metabolic abnormalities
that contribute to an increased risk of heart disease including
obesity, high blood pressure, increased blood clotting, increased
levels of proteins associated with atherosclerosis (hardening of
the arteries) and insulin resistance
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FACT
According to
Former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, more than 300,000
Americans die each year from obesity-related illnesses.
This is the
same as 6 airliners with 133 people on
board crashing daily. That means that within this next
hour, 34 of us will die. And over the next 5 minutes, 3 of us
will die due to problems related to obesity.
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