Friday, May 26, 2006
Undiagnosed Diabetes Unreasonably High
The news from this morning from the NIH is that One Third of Adults with Diabetes Still Don't Know They Have It. That's a pretty frightening statistic, as type II diabetes is one of the world's greatest killers. As I've said elsewhere, when you move from pre-diabetes to full diabetes, you are aging about twice as fast as you would otherwise.
For instance, if you're 40 and get diabetes, then if you were likely to live to 80, you can expect to live to only 60 without proper and disciplined treatment. So, you might go from looking forward to 15 years of golf after retirement to not making out of the office at all. Yes, I'm trying to scare you here, because it's that serious!
The study found that men are much more likely to have undiagnosed diabetes than women. I would imagine that's partly because men don't go to the doctor as much as women. I've started going once per year just to make sure everything is in order. When you do see the doctor, make sure to ask for a fasting blood glucose test. That's the easiest way to start finding out whether you have a problem.
To find out more about pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, and diabetes, you should go to my Pre-Diabetes Information page on this site. Digg This!
For instance, if you're 40 and get diabetes, then if you were likely to live to 80, you can expect to live to only 60 without proper and disciplined treatment. So, you might go from looking forward to 15 years of golf after retirement to not making out of the office at all. Yes, I'm trying to scare you here, because it's that serious!
The study found that men are much more likely to have undiagnosed diabetes than women. I would imagine that's partly because men don't go to the doctor as much as women. I've started going once per year just to make sure everything is in order. When you do see the doctor, make sure to ask for a fasting blood glucose test. That's the easiest way to start finding out whether you have a problem.
To find out more about pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, and diabetes, you should go to my Pre-Diabetes Information page on this site. Digg This!
