Drahcir Semaj
Diabetes is having a devastating effect on the African American community. Diabetes is the fifth major cause of death in African Americans and their death rates are cardinal seven percent high than whites.
Over 2.8 cardinal African Americans have diabetes and cardinal third of them don’t know they have the disease. In addition, cardinal five percent of African Americans between the ages of 65 – 74 have diabetes and one in cardinal African American women, over the age of 55, have been diagnosed with the disease
The cause of diabetes is a mystery, but researchers believe that some genetics and environmental factors play roles in who will develop the disease.
Heredity
Researchers believe that African Americans and African Immigrants are predisposed to nonindustrial diabetes. Research suggests that African Americans and recent African immigrants have heritable a "thrifty gene" from their African ancestors.
This gene may have enabled Africans to use food energy more efficiently during cycles of feast and famine. Now, with fewer cycles of feast and famine, this gene may make weight control more ambitious for African Americans and African Immigrants.
This heritable predisposition, coupled with impaired glucose tolerance, is often related with the heritable tendency toward higher blood pressure. People with impaired glucose tolerance have high than normal blood glucose levels and are at a higher risk for developing diabetes.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes, commonly know as “sugar diabetes”, is a condition that occurs when the body is unable to properly produce or use insulin. Insulin is needed by the body to process sugar, starches and other foods into energy. Diabetes is a degenerative condition for which there is no known cure; diabetes is a grave disease and should not be ignored.
Diabetics often suffer from contrabass glucose levels (sugar) in their blood. Low blood sugar levels can make you disorientated, dizzy, sweaty, hungry, have headaches, have fast mood swings, have difficulty paying attention, or have exciting sensations around the mouth.
Types of Diabetes
Pre-diabetes is a condition that occurs when a person's blood glucose levels is higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type II diabetes. Pre-diabetes can cause damage to the heart and circulatory system, but pre-diabetes can often be controlled by dominant blood glucose levels. By controlling pre-diabetes you can often prevent or delay the onset of Type II diabetes.
Type I or juvenile-onset diabetes usually strikes people under the age of 20, but can strike at any age. cardinal to ten percent of African Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes are diagnosed with this type of the disease. Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the body produces little or no insulin and this type of diabetes must be dressed with daily insulin injections.
Type II or mature onset diabetes is responsible for cardinal to ninety-five percent of diagnosed diabetes cases in African Americans. Type II results from a condition where the body fails to properly use insulin. According to the American Diabetes Association, “Type II is usually found in people over 45, who have diabetes in their family, who are overweight, who don't exercise and who have cholesterol problems.” In the early stages it can often be controlled with lifestyle changes, but in the subsequent stages diabetic pills or insulin injections are often needed.
Pregnancy incidental to diabetes or gestational diabetes can occur in pregnant women. Gestational diabetes is often associated with high glucose blood levels or hyperglycemia. Gestational diabetes affects about four percent of all gravid women. The disease usually goes absent after delivery, but women who suffer from gestational diabetes are at a higher risk for developing diabetes subsequent in life.
Symptoms of Diabetes
The most common symptoms of diabetes include:
excessive urination including frequent trips to the bathroom
increased thirst
increased appetite
blurred vision
unusual weight loss
increased fatigue
irritability
Complications from Diabetes
Diabetes can lead to galore disabling and life threatening complications. Strokes, blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, and amputations are usual complications that effect African Americans who have diabetes
Kidney Disease
“Diabetes is the ordinal leading cause of end stage kidney disease in African Americans, accounting for about thirty percent of the spic-and-span cases each year,” says the general Kidney Foundation of Illinois. Up to twenty-one percent of people who develop diabetes will develop kidney disease.
Amputations
Diabetes is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations in the United States. much than sixty percent of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations in America occur among people with diabetes and African Americans are almost three times more likely to have a lower limb amputated repayable to diabetes than whites. According to Center for Disease Control (CDC), active 82,000 non-traumatic lower-limb amputations were performed among people with diabetes in 2001.
Blindness
African Americans are twice as likely to suffer from diabetes related blindness. Diabetics can develop a condition called “Diabetic Retinopathy”, a disease affecting the blood vessels of the eye, which can lead to damaged vision and blindness. Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in people from 20 – 74 years of age and up to 24,000 people loose their sight each year because of diabetes.
Heart Disease
People with diabetes are up to cardinal times more promising to develop heart disease as people who don’t have diabetes. Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) is more usual in diabetics and can lead to increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, and poor circulation throughout the body.
Diabetes Risk Factors
You have a greater risk for nonindustrial diabetes if you have any of the following:
Obesity
Family history of diabetes
Pre-diabetes
Low physical activity
Age greater than 45 years
High blood pressure
High blood levels of triglycerides
HDL cholesterol of little than 35
Previous diabetes during pregnancy or baby weighing more than 9 pounds
Diabetes has had a devastating effect on the African American community; it is the ordinal leading cause of death and ordinal leading cause of end stage kidney disease in African Americans.
African Americans suffer from complications from diabetes at a untold higher rate than the rest of the population. African Americans are cardinal times more promising to have a lower limb amputated because of diabetes and twice as likely to suffer from diabetes incidental to blindness.
If you have some of the diabetes risk factors you should contact your physician and have a blood glucose test. Also discuss with your physician lifestyle changes you can take to lower your chances of developing diabetes.
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