Diabetes is a dangerous disease when it is left undiagnosed and untreated. For such an easy disease to detect and to screen for, it is amazing the number of people whose diabetes goes undetected and so untreated.

First of all, there are two different types of diabetes that affect many things concerning treatment. Type 1 diabetes involves failure of the pancreas to produce insulin. Insulin is an important hormone that allows the body to convert sugars and starches into energy for the cells. Without it, the sugars stay in the blood stream and accomplish nothing. Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand, is much more common than Type 1 diabetes. It is the type of diabetes in which a person’s pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to keep up with demand or the body is no longer able to use the insulin produced by the body. Type 1 patients are much less common (roughly 10% of all cases) but are completely insulin injection dependent. Type 2 patients can generally control the disease through diet and lifestyle changes.

Diabetes is a very serious health condition. It is such a serious condition that the life expectancy of diabetics is approximately 10 years less than that of non-diabetics. This is because of the numerous complications that go hand in hand with diabetes. Coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, blindness or vision loss, kidney problems, circulation issues, and loss of circulation in both the hands and feet are all common side effects of diabetes that has not been treated or managed properly.

Considering the dangers of not controlling diabetes, it is scary how many have diabetes undiagnosed. An individual with undiagnosed diabetes is an individual who has not been diagnosed by a doctor or physician but whose plasma glucose levels are well within the accepted criteria for diabetes. The United States is estimated to have an undiagnosed diabetes population of 2.7% of the entire adult population over the age of 20.

This percentage means that nearly 3% of the adult population are putting their bodies at risk by not having control of their diabetes because they have not had it diagnosed. A simple blood test is really all that is needed to determine if a person is diabetic or not. This is generally part of any general physical conducted on an adult, since blood tests can tell so much about a person’s overall health. The level of undiagnosed diabetics suggests that at least some blood tests are not being interpreted appropriately.

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