November is Diabetes month

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By Stan Welch

Anderson County and its various municipalities have declared November to be American Diabetes Month. In addition to recognizing the disease and its significant impact on both the American people and the health care system, the resolution also encourages people to become involved in the American Diabetes Association’s Stop Diabetes programs.

Included are programs to encourage healthy diet and increased activity. The America Gets Cooking to Stop Diabetes is a major nutritional effort which stresses a specific activity for each day of the week. For example, Get Moving Mondays encourages activity to combat the effects of the weekend. Tasty Tip Tuesdays, What’s Cooking Wednesdays, and other events for each day round out the week’s activities.

Diabetes is estimated to affect thirty million children and adults with an additional eighty six million suffering from a pre-diabetic condition. Those people are at risk of developing type two diabetes. By the year 2050, as many as one third of Americans may have diabetes.

Diabetes is a main cause or catalyst for heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputation due to circulatory problems, blindness, impotence, and nerve damage. Diagnosed diabetes has a total economic impact of $245 billion. One hundred seventy six billion of that is direct medical costs, while an additional sixty nine billion dollars in related disability and loss of work occurs.