U.S. rate of Type 2 diabetes stabilizes, CDC reports

Is it possible that all the preaching and dissemination of information from this and many other sites on how to lose weight is finally having an effect? It feels good to pass on the following information from the CDC which reports that the incidences of obesity appears to have stabilized somewhat and the increasing rate of Type 2 diabetes is slowing down.

Unfortunately, this trend does not affect the entire population of diabetics, because certain risk factors still come into play such as ethnicity and financial status.

The overall good news, however, can be directly attributed to the positive impact of dietary changes and increased activity, especially amongst our youngsters.

U.S. rate of Type 2 diabetes stabilizes, CDC reports

After growing steadily for nearly two decades, the rate of Type 2 diabetes among American adults appears to have stalled, according to a comprehensive new study from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC team said the plateau may be a downstream effect of another positive trend: a stabilization of obesity rates in the U.S. first seen in 2003 and 2004.

However, the metabolic disorder continues to spread among African Americans and Latinos, researchers report in Wednesday’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn. And among Americans ages 20 to 44 and those with a high school education or less, the likelihood of a diabetes diagnosis is still rising as well.

“It’s good news in a way, but it’s not good news for everybody,” said Shakira Suglia, an epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health who wasn’t involved in the JAMA study. While many Americans have gotten the message that better food choices and more exercise can keep diabetes at bay, she added, “we’re just not reaching certain populations.”

The new research assessed changes in the prevalence of diabetes (the rate at which the disease is present in an overall population) and its incidence (the rate at which new diagnoses are made within a given time frame).

Prevalence gives a sense of a disease’s overall public health impact, while incidence allows physicians and public health authorities to infer an individual’s average risk of developing a disease. Collectively, measures of incidence and prevalence make it possible to compare the disease risk among groups based on such characteristics as gender, age and ethnicity.

The new research assessed changes in the prevalence of diabetes (the rate at which the disease is present in an overall population) and its incidence (the rate at which new diagnoses are made within a given time frame).

Prevalence gives a sense of a disease’s overall public health impact, while incidence allows physicians and public health authorities to infer an individual’s average risk of developing a disease. Collectively, measures of incidence and prevalence make it possible to compare the disease risk among groups based on such characteristics as gender, age and ethnicity.

CDC statistics show that in 2012, 29.1 million Americans — nearly 1 in 10 — suffered from either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, but only 21 million knew they had the disease.

The shifting tides of obesity and diabetes have major economic implications for U.S. healthcare spending. Lifetime medical costs for those with diabetes are roughly twice as high as for those without.

For groups that are still seeing higher rates of diabetes, public health experts will have to offer more than exhortation to turn things around, Suglia said.

“With certain populations, you have to look beyond” messages that promote more healthful eating and more exercise, she said. For adults working two jobs to feed their families, or coping with violent neighborhoods, “these factors fall down on the list of priorities, so there has to be a bigger effort to go beyond ‘eat healthy and exercise’ and to ask, ‘How do we facilitate that?'”

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P.S.  I continue to applaud the scientists, researchers and educators for their relentless efforts in seeking solutions to, and teaching the general public about, diabetes. Although there is a slowing down in the growth of this disease, the message continues to be same: eat a healthy diet and adopt some form of consistent daily activity.

P.P.S.  Visit How to Prevent Pre-diabetes for information of how to reverse pre-diabetes with focused exercises.