Rising Prevalence Of Diabetes: Over 24 million adults had diabetes in 2021, with projections reaching 55 million by 2045 — and more than half are unaware they have it.
Severe Complications: Diabetes can lead to serious health issues, including heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, and sexual or urinary problems.
Awareness Matters: Understanding diabetes empowers individuals to make informed choices, reduce risks, and manage the condition effectively.
The numbers are scary: about 24 million adults who are 18 and older had diabetes in 2021; the number is set to increase to 55 million by 2045, and more than half of people living with diabetes do not know that they have the disease.
While diabetes is not a death sentence, it is a significant cause of life-threatening complications such as heart diseases, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, foot ulcers, urinary tract infections in women, erectile dysfunction in men, and so on.
Knowing what diabetes is all about can help you make safe choices to protect yourself and perhaps manage the risks.
Diabetes is a Chronic Disease
Diabetes is a chronic condition that develops when the body cannot control blood sugar, either because it cannot use the insulin the pancreas makes or because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin.
Uncontrolled diabetes frequently causes hyperglycaemia, or elevated blood sugar, which over time seriously harms many bodily systems, including the nerves and blood vessels. Diabetes caused 416,000 deaths across the world in 2021.
Type 1 versus Type 2 Diabetes
The primary difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes is that type 1 is a genetic illness that usually occurs in childhood. When you have type 1 diabetes, your immune system attacks and kills the cells in your pancreas that make insulin. In contrast, type 2 is primarily a result of lifestyle choices and develops over time.
Type 1 Diabetes
Deficient insulin production is a hallmark of type 1 diabetes, sometimes called insulin-dependent, juvenile, or childhood-onset. This condition requires daily insulin injections.
In type 1 diabetes, the body attacks the pancreatic beta cells, impairing their capacity to make insulin. High blood sugar levels result from the cells' inability to absorb glucose in the absence of sufficient insulin. Children are most frequently affected by type 1 diabetes.
Symptoms of type 1 diabetes include:
- frequent urination (polyuria)
- excessive thirst (polydipsia)
- persistent hunger
- Weight loss
- poor vision
- exhaustion
These signs often appear suddenly and worsen over time if the high blood sugar is not well controlled.
Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes, also known as non-insulin-dependent or adult-onset diabetes, occurs when the body cannot use insulin adequately. Most people with diabetes worldwide suffer from type 2 diabetes, and the common risk factors include being overweight and physically inactive. The disease is more common in adults.
Insulin Resistance, which is a complication of type 2 diabetes, affects how well your body recognizes insulin. Without a sufficient insulin response, it becomes more difficult for your cells to absorb glucose, which causes blood sugar levels to increase.
While symptoms are frequently less severe than those of type 1 diabetes, they may be comparable. As a result, the condition may not be discovered until after its onset, when complications have already developed. This particular type of diabetes was previously only observed in adults, but it is becoming increasingly seen in kids.
Is it true that black people are more likely to have diabetes?
One reason millions of Africans have diabetes is that black people are more likely to have the disease than non-blacks. This increased risk are linked to:
- Gene-dependent factors
Some researchers suggest that the “thrifty gene”, which helps certain groups to conserve energy and nutrients during scarcity, is a potential reason why black Americans had higher diabetes rates than other ethnic groups.
- Health-related factors
Obesity and reduced physical activity are linked to increased emergence of type 2 diabetes among blacks.
- Social factors
Poverty is a significant risk factor for diabetes. In a 2014 study, researchers studying the relationship between diabetes prevalence and poverty found that the rates of diabetes were greater among blacks but particularly higher in poor folks.
