Diabetics

What does a diabetic look like? Just take a look in the mirror. They look like all of us. Diabetes is an equal-opportunity offender, striking people of every age, every race, every gender, and every religion, everywhere on the planet, although some ethnicities do seem to have a greater genetic tendency to develop diabetes than others.

About 5 to 10 percent of diabetics have type 1 diabetes, which typically develops in childhood and requires daily insulin injections.

The remaining 90 plus percent have type 2 diabetes, which usually develops after age 40. Type 2 diabetes is more of a lifestyle illness, made worse by eating the wrong foods, being overweight, and not getting enough exercise.

There are roughly 24 million Americans who suffer from some form of diabetes. That’s nearly 8 percent of the population. Incredibly, about a quarter of them don’t even know they have the disease.

In order to determine whether or not a patient has pre-diabetes or diabetes, health care providers conduct a Fasting Plasma Glucose Test (FPG) or an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). Either test can be used to diagnose pre-diabetes or diabetes. The American Diabetes Association recommends the FPG because it is easier, faster, and less expensive to perform.

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