A new study by the UnitedHealth Group’s Center for Health Reform and Modernization titled “The United States of Diabetes: Challenges and Opportunities in the Decade Ahead” predicts that by 2020 – just a mere ten years away – more than half of the American public will either have diabetes or be diagnosed as prediabetic. As someone who has a history of diabetes in her family, I find this to be a really scary finding.
Both of my grandmothers were diagnosed with Type II diabetes when I was just a child. Once my father hit 55, he too was diagnosed with diabetes. When I was pregnant with my six year old son, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. So I know how important it is to try to use exercise and diet to combat what seems to be a genetic predisposition to diabetes. Or is it?
Director Ann Albright of the Center for Disease Control’s Division of Diabetes Translation told CNN “Obesity is a significant contributor of the new cases of diabetes. It is certainly a factor.” The UnitedHealth study suggested educating Americans about diabetes and how to prevent it, including intervention programs and lifestyle changes.
If more than half of us turn out to be diabetic or prediabetic within 10 years, the health care costs will be staggering. The study estimates that this health care crisis will account for 10 percent of all health care spending, coming in at about $500 billion. Right now, it is estimated that diabetes will cost about $194 billion this year. Diabetes is the fastest growing disease in the U.S. and can cause blindness, nerve damage, amputation, and heart and kidney disease.
Now may not be the time to talk about it after many of us ate that big Thanksgiving dinner, but November is National Diabetes Prevention month. But, it is important to know there are things we can do to starve off diabetes. Doing that could save up to $250 billion in health care costs between now and 2010.