The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) collects statistics on all manner of diseases and health conditions, in order to track both extent and evolution of public health problems. The National Eye Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) have collected quite a few regarding diabetes. Here is a pertinent sample of the most current diabetes statistics:
Today, an estimated 17 million Americans have diabetes, and 5.9 million of them have not yet been diagnosed. This figure is climbing. Each year one million Americans age 20 and older are diagnosed with the condition. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., and the NIH stresses these stats are under-reported and incomplete.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among diabetics, who are two to four times as likely to experience cardiac events as are non-diabetics. Statistics for diabetes and risk of stroke are the same (diabetics two to four times as likely as non-diabetics), and about 73 percent of diabetic adults either have high blood pressure (greater than or equal to 130/80 mm Hg) or use prescription medication for hypertension.
More than 9 million Americans are visually impaired; 5.3 million of these from diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness among Americans age 20 to 74 years, causing 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year.
Diabetes is the leading cause of treated end-stage renal disease (ESRD), accounting for 43 percent of new cases. In 1999, the last year for which we have complete statistics at this time, 114,478 diabetics underwent dialysis or kidney transplantation, and 38,160 diabetics began their treatment for ESRD.
NIH statistics report 60 to 70 percent of diabetics show detectable neuropathy, nerve damage. Results can include numbness or pain in extremities, difficulty with digestive processes, and other problems. Severe neuropathy can contribute to diabetic foot complications, and is a major contributor to lower-extremity amputations. More than 60 percent of non-traumatic (meaning not caused by explosion, accident, or act of violence) lower limb amputations occur among people with diabetes.
Poorly controlled diabetes leads to an increase in dental/periodontal problems, and poorly controlled diabetes during pregnancy can imperil the baby in many ways.
Type 2 diabetes (more than 90 percent of all cases) is closely associated with "lipid abnormalities," which manifest most often as dangerously high cholesterol--with all the risks that brings.
Statistics are not "inevitability." They are not "fortune-telling," but merely measures of past performance, not absolute predictors of the future. If you have diabetes, the best way to minimize the risk of any of its complications is to "do as the doctor ordered," to tightly control your blood glucose. It works--and we have the statistics to prove it.