When we think of diabetes, we usually like to think that those diagnosed are of the ages of grandparents and elderly or maybe 50 and up. However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 5.7% of all new cases of diabetes occur in people between 18 and 29. Another 3.5% of diagnoses even happen before the patients’ 35th birthday. 4% of diabetes cases are among adults ages 18 to 44, which equals to about 4.9 million adults.
Prediabetes (a condition that, if left untreated, will turn into type 2 diabetes. You can learn a little bit more about this by clicking here.) can affect people of younger ages as well. According to a study from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 adults, or 24%, ages 19 to 34 have prediabetes. Also, nearly 1 in 5 adolescents, or 18%, from ages 12 to 18 are living with prediabetes too.
A couple of decades ago, adolescents having type 2 diabetes was something unheard of. However, released data from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study shows that type 2 diabetes in 10 to 19-year olds increased by 21% from 2001-2009. From 2002 to 2015, the rate of new type 2 diabetes cases in all US youth under 20 increased by 4.8% per year, totaling over 60% growth!
While these percentages are astounding, you are probably wondering: What are the real-world numbers of adolescents living with diabetes? Well, in 2007, a study estimated that there were 3,700 new cases of type 2 diabetes a year in the US. But in 2012, the CDC estimated 5,300 new diagnosed cases that year, over a 43% increase from the 2007 study! The most recent number for adolescents under 20 with type 2 diabetes was in 2018, yielding about 23,000 diagnosed cases!
Although it is true that older age groups make up many of the overall incidences of diabetes in comparison to younger groups, that doesn’t change the fact that within recent years, the cases of diabetes for these younger groups have significantly grown and still are growing.
The good news is, type 2 diabetes is reversible! We will talk about how you can reverse diabetes in another article, but for now, at most understand, that it requires diet and lifestyle changes.
November is National Diabetes Month in America and November 14th is World Diabetes Day. Make sure you spread awareness of diabetes and the things you can do to prevent and/or reverse it.
The main thing to remember is, what you put into your body is what you get out. If you put healthy foods that provide your body with nutrients and benefits into yourself, you will, in turn, receive numerous benefits back from it.
And most importantly, sugar has no nutrients or benefits.
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