Centers for Disease Control has released their National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014, and the news is not great. Diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes increased in 2012 (the latest data available) to 29.1 million (9.3% of the population) with diabetes, with 8.1 million (27.8 %) of those undiagnosed. As you know, being undiagnosed means that you are unaware that you have the disease and likely are not doing anything to control blood glucose or make lifestyle changes to reduce health risks. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to health consequences such as blindness, amputations, heart disease, and kidney disease. Check out the graphs to see the health disparities in diabetes prevalence.

Diabetes can be prevented or forestalled among those who are at high risk through lifestyle changes. The National Diabetes Prevention Program, which we are providing in several counties (including Pinellas) through Extension, is the CDC curriculum that is based on the successful Diabetes Prevention Program research study. That study found that an intensive lifestyle behavior change program reduced the chances that a person with pre-diabetes would develop diabetes by 58%, a better outcome than was found for those who received metformin, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes.

For information on the Pinellas County Extension diabetes prevention program contact Nan Jensen at njensen@pinellascounty.org

Here is the link to the CDC Report that was just released: CDC 2014 Diabetes Report

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