About Diabetes

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder associated with a high sugar level in the blood. Normally, insulin moves the sugar from the blood into tissues where it is used for energy. In type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, there is a deficiency of insulin due to a disease of the pancreas. In type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, the body is resistant to the effect of insulin. In either case, because the sugar cannot go into the tissues, it stays in the blood and results in a high “blood sugar.” High blood sugar is defined as a fasting blood sugar (a sugar done after not eating for 8 hours) of 126 mg/dl or greater or a random blood sugar over 200 mg/dl. (mg/dl refers to the number of milligrams of sugar dissolved in a certain volume of blood -- either whole blood, or the liquid part of blood, plasma or serum).

Statistics

According to the 2011 CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) report diabetes mellitus affects nearly 26 million Americans. About seven million Americans are undiagnosed. Another 79 million Americans over age 19 have prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar (glucose) levels are higher than normal but still not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. This condition is now believed to affect 30 percent of Americans who are over 20 years old. Prediabetes raises a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. About 27 percent of people 65 years and older have diabetes and 50 percent have prediabetes. The rate of diabetes and prediabetes are even high in many racial and ethnic minorities. These are alarming statistics. As a society and as individuals, we need to find a way to prevent diabetes and to manage the illness in those already affected. hide

What is A1c?

A1C represents the attachment of glucose (sugar) to hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein in our red blood cells). The red blood cells need glucose for their metabolism. When the hemoglobin in the red blood cell meets glucose, glucose slowly (over days and weeks) attaches to an amino acid on the hemoglobin. At this time, a person’s A1C level would show the amount of glucose that the red blood cells have been exposed to over time. Since the average life a red blood cells is 3 to 4 months, the A1C shows an average blood sugar level, not just at the time the blood test was done, but during the long period leading up to that time.
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