Diabetes is a disease where your blood glucose (sugar) levels are above normal. It results from the inability of the glucose to get into your cells. As a result your cells are starving for their food (glucose).
About 17 million Americans are believed to have diabetes and one-third of those patients don’t even know they have it. Diabetes can cause serious health complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and lower-extremity amputations.
Diabetes has hidden dangers that begin before diagnosis and continue to worsen if certain steps are not taken to prevent the complications that are the true, “killers” in terms of diabetes.
It is amazing how many people, diabetics included, who have no idea what dangers a diabetic faces over their lifetime. A diabetic, all things being equal, lives almost 10 years less than their non-diabetic counterpart on average.
Diabetes is the 6th leading cause of death in the US. And most diabetics develop heart disease. In fact, just having diabetes carries the same risk of having a heart attack as someone who has already had such an event.
Therefore it is very important for patients that have diabetes to also have a physician that closely monitors and treats their cholesterol levels as well as their blood pressure. Additionally, any use of tobacco products multiplies the risks and should be stopped. This new breakthrough may help:
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