Why Should We Care About Diabetes?
Once you know the facts, it is hard not to care about diabetes. In America alone, 17 million people have diabetes. Approximately 1 million Americans are diagnosed each year, and a third of all the people with diabetes are unaware they have it. In the U.S., diabetes is the 5 th leading cause of death by disease and constitutes 20% of all deaths.
WHO (World Health Organization) has declared that there is an epidemic of diabetes. Worldwide, there are 200 million diabetes patients, not including those who still do not know that they have it. In the next decade, the projected number of known diabetics is expected to reach over 250 million.
Because of the small amount of attention that has been paid to the disease despite these alarming numbers, the rise in diabetes has often been called the “Silent Epidemic”. A possible cause for this epidemic has been attributed to changes in modern lifestyle:
• The type of food consumed contains higher numbers of calories and purified sugars;
• The typical meal size has increased;
• People are not exercising adequately;
• Higher stress levels, and;
• An increase in the elderly population.
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