Diabetes Is Now an Epidemic
I have been alarmed at the rapid increase in the number of people with diabetes. Diabetes has become an epidemic affecting about 20 million Americans and over 1 million Pennsylvania residents.
Type II, or "adult onset" diabetes, historically impacted older people, but is reaching epidemic levels and becoming a common problem among much younger people, especially those who do not get the proper diet and exercise. We're seeing some military recruits show up with diabetes, and a number of National Guard and Reserve members found out they had diabetes when they had problems in recent action in Iraq.
Without ongoing monitoring and patient care, the disease results in disastrous health consequences, including an increased risk of heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and extremity amputations.
- Diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death by disease in the United States.
- It has no cure.
The American Diabetes Association reported that direct and indirect medical cost across the United States estimated for 2002 was $132 Billion; that includes direct medical and treatment costs, plus indirect costs attributed to disability and mortality. Per capita medical expense for people with diabetes is $13,243.
Learn more about diabetes from American Diabetes Association.
There are two main kinds of diabetes.
Type I or insulin-dependent diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes, even though adults get it too. With insulin-dependent diabetes, the pancrease stops making insulin, causing glucose to build up in the blood. Glucose is a kind of sugar that your body's cells use for fuel.Type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes, is the most common form: a person does not make enough insulin or the body does not use the insulin well.
Obesity and junk food are contributing to the alarming increase in Type 2 diabetes.
For these reasons, I have worked to provide funding for research into the causes of diabetes, methods of preventing diabetes and education, outreach and screening programs that we are in the process of establishing in Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District.
In the past several years, I've been able to direct over $30 million in defense funds into diabetes research and care, including $16.4 million to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for Type I research. I'm currently working to continue that research while starting a major research and intervention initiative through the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, plus an outreach-diagnostic program through the Veterans Administration in conjunction with the world-renowned Joslin Center.
The research at Children’s Hospital is headed by Dr. Massimo Trucco, chief of the division of immunogenetics and the Hillman Professor of Immunology at Children's Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, a world-renowned diabetes researcher. Dr. Trucco’s team discovered that Type I may be triggered by a common virus in children who are genetically predisposed to the disease. Type I diabetics must take daily insulin injections to stay alive.
Trucco said a promising potential cure would be to be able to transplant islets into young patients so that the islets can produce insulin. Several challenges must be overcome in order to succeed, including the shortage of islets (for one transplant of pancreatic islets, three to four donor pancreases are required) and preventing the immune system from attacking and destroying the islets.
Dr. Linda Siminerio, executive director of the Diabetes Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, said lifestyles are responsible for much of the increase in Type II diabetes -- with poor diet, junk food and lack of exercize contributing to a growing rate of obesity, which can lead to diabetes.
Education needs to be promoted as one component of the attack. Other specific suggestions to reduce the impact of diabetes in Western Pennsylvania include:
- Continue the research into what triggers the disease.
- Make doctors who are specialists in diabetes available in the rural and smaller urbanized areas.
- Provide local diabetes educators and dietitians to work one-on-one with diabetics and their families.
To learn more about diabetes, heart disease, and weight management, check out the following websites:
American Diabetes Association (ADA).
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
- National Diabetes Education Program.
- National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC).
- American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE).
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF).
- American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE).
