In accordance to statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

-29.1 million people have diabetes.

Heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, stroke and many others, according to Medical News Today, make the list of top 10 leading causes of death within the United States. Another culprit that may not be as visible to its falling victims is diabetes. Diabetes is a growing disease, not only in the United States, but all over the world.

-Think of 11 of your closest family members in your head. 29.1 million is about one out of those 11 — and that is just in the United States alone.

So what is diabetes? Diabetes is a disease that can be caused in a multitude of ways, including poor diet, genetics, being overweight, having pancreatitis, inactivity, etc. There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2.

-One out of four people are unaware they even have diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is most commonly connected to genetic factors. Insulin is a hormone that is produced in the body by means of the pancreas, and when you have type 1 diabetes, your body is no longer capable of producing insulin. Not only is type 1 diabetes not preventable, there is also no cure.

If you’ve gotten to this point and you’re thinking, “Well, I’m not overweight therefore there’s no way I can get diabetes,” I urge you to read on.

Type 2 diabetes is a different form, where your body either doesn’t produce an adequate amount of insulin or it is not being used properly. The most common causes of type 2 diabetes are obesity, genetic factors and inactivity. Just like type 1, there also is not a cure for type 2 diabetes.

-86 million people, more than one out of three, have pre-diabetes.

A sound most synonymous to putting a fork in a blender erupts when I hear people laugh and say, “My doctor tells me I have pre-diabetes, it is not a big deal at all.”

-Now picture another 10 of your family members. Nine out of those 10 are completely unaware they have pre-diabetes.

Pre-diabetes is not a big deal you say? Testing your A1C level curtails reading the accurate blood glucose level one has after receiving a blood test. A normal A1C level is anything below 5.7 percent. An A1C level of 5.7 to 6.4 percent indicates pre-diabetes, putting you at a large risk for diabetes.

-Without a change in lifestyle incorporating measures to promote weight loss and some kind of exercise, 15–30 percent of people that have pre-diabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within five years.

You may be thinking, “OK so my body isn’t producing enough insulin or it isn’t being used properly, what can that affect?” Not only does your body not produce insulin but because of that you could be at risk for blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, loss of toes, feet or legs and a number of other gruesome complications all susceptible to death.

-Medical costs are twice as high for people with diabetes than those without.

If you receive an A1C test and discover you are within the 5.7 to 6.4 percentile level, get help. Use the resources available to you including: help from your doctor, online forums, books, health magazines, and simple daily measures that can be implemented in your life to prevent the protraction of diabetes.

After reaching a 6.5 percentile, there is no going back. You are now a victim of diabetes. You are now unable to live without either the dependence of insulin or without huge restrictions on your life. Even if you get below the 6.4 percentile after a while of taking medications or changing your lifestyle, you are now someone that has controlled diabetes.

-The risk of death for adults with diabetes is 50 percent higher than for those without diabetes.

Don’t become the 50 percent; open your eyes to the thwarts that diabetes can cause on your life.

This article is meant to bring awareness about diabetes, the information given was collected from online medical resources as well as my primary care physician.