Diabetes is a serious disease that if not taken care of can rob you of your sight, kidneys, and limbs. Every 19 seconds someone is diagnosed with diabetes. And the majority of those individuals will be African American. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are 4.9 million African Americans living in the United States with diabetes.
These individuals typically will be categorized as having one of three common types of diabetes; type 1, type 2, or gestational. In adults, type 1 diabetes accounts for approximately 5% of all diagnoses; type 2 represents about 90% to 95% of all cases, with reported rates of gestational diabetes ranging from 2% to 10% of pregnancies. Most African Americans will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a group of diseases characterized by elevated blood glucose—also called blood sugar, levels due to problems in insulin secretion, insulin action or both. Insulin is the hormone that helps move glucose into your cells to be used as energy.
Gestational diabetes can develop in the late stages of a woman’s pregnancy, as a result of pregnancy hormones that prevent insulin from doing its job. Although this form of diabetes usually goes away after