Type 2 diabetes is the silent global epidemic of the 21st century. Learning that you have diabetes should be information to be taken as seriously as the announcement of a very serious illness.
Dark prospect for young Americans born since 2000: one in three will develop diabetes in their lifetime! This estimate is not far-fetched, it comes from the very serious “Center For Disease Control”, the CDC of Atlanta, which has conducted a study among 326,000 Americans for sixteen years. According to the head of the diabetes department of the CDC, “the risk of developing this disease throughout one’s life is 33% for men and 39% for women”, all ethnicities combined. And these figures are even more worrying if we look at the Hispanic community, which constitutes a third of Americans: a frequency of 45% for men and 53% for women! When we know that on average, to diagnose diabetes at the age of 40 is to announce to the person a reduced life expectancy of more than ten years, we understand better why this specialist does not do not hesitate to talk about the XXI epidemicth century.
The 5th cause of death
Yet the United States is not discovering the problem, it is only getting worse. In fact, the number of diabetics has increased by almost 50% over the past ten years. Today is the 5e cause of death from disease in the United States. And if the curve does not change, the frequency will increase by 165% by the middle of our century.
For the American health authorities, the prevention of diabetes must therefore become a national priority. And the preventive measures are simple. The head of the national education program summed them up in two words: modification of eating habits and rehabilitation of physical exercise. Measures of great simplicity, but particularly difficult to gain acceptance in a country where aberrant eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle are the rule.
Lose 5 to 7%
Another way to curb the epidemic is to sensitize the population of pre-diabetics, that is to say those who have a sugar level higher than normal but not high enough for us to be able to diagnose diabetes. In these people, the risk of developing the disease can be halved, provided they follow the measures of the American health programs, which are not very different from those recommended in Europe:
- Lose 5 to 7% of the weight,
- Decrease their fat consumption,
- Do 30 minutes of brisk walking 5 days a week.
No less than 16 million Americans are directly affected! And to be complete, let’s add 4 million French people …
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