Costs and Consequences is a blog series examining the health care burden of not treating diseases. Too often, the rhetoric focuses solely on the cost of medicines and disregards the adverse societal and economic impacts of not treating diseases. Stay tuned for the next post in the series and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
- Diabetes is a leading cause of death in the United States and its prevalence is rising at an alarming rate.
- Every 30 seconds a new diabetes case is diagnosed, with almost 2 million Americans newly diagnosed each year.
- Currently, more than 29 million people – one in 10 American adults – have diabetes.
- If trends continue as many as one–in-three Americans could face the disease by 2050.
Diabetes is a complex, chronic condition that requires consistent medical care and treatment to help control blood sugar levels. If left untreated, diabetes can lead to devastating complications, such as heart disease, nerve damage, blindness, kidney failure and amputations.
And the risk of death for adults with diabetes is 50 percent higher than for adults without diabetes. The cost of not treating diabetes is detrimental to the patient, and also to society. According to the American Diabetes Association’s report, Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2012, the total estimated cost of diabetes in 2012 was $245 billion – a 41 percent increase since 2007.
This includes $176 billion in direct medical costs and $69 billion in reduced productivity, such as increased absenteeism, reduced productivity while at work and lost productivity due to early mortality. And people with diabetes, on average, have medical costs twice as high as for people without diabetes. These costs are unsustainable and underscore the need to control diabetes with a proper treatment plan, including diet, exercise and medications. Adherence to treatment is especially critical as improved adherence to diabetes medications could result in over 1 million fewer emergency room visits and save $8.3 billion annually.
Can you live with undiagnosed diabetes?
April 17, 2018 in Health Risk Management • By Susan Walker Many of the symptoms of diabetes can be subtle. Maybe you’re thirstier or more hungry than usual. Perhaps you’ve noticed patches of darker skin in your armpits, elbows, knees, groin, or on your neck. Or you can’t figure out why you’re more tired than usual.
All these symptoms can be caused by type 2 diabetes. Of the 30.3 million American adults living with type 2 diabetes, 7.2 million of those people have undiagnosed diabetes according to statistics from the American Diabetes Association. An additional 84.1 million adults in the U.S. have prediabetes —blood sugar levels that are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be classified as diabetes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that of those 84.1 million adults with prediabetes, 70% will develop diabetes over time.
Can you survive diabetes without medication?
Some people can control and manage type 2 diabetes without medicine, but many others will need diabetes medications along with lifestyle changes. If you are newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, your provider may first recommend that you manage your diabetes using lifestyle changes only.
- Controlling type 2 diabetes without medication means keeping track of your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol under the supervision of your diabetes care provider.
- You will also need to follow a diabetes meal plan, get to and maintain a healthy weight, and make physical activity part of your daily routine.
Keeping your A1C, blood pressure and cholesterol in check may help you avoid the long-term complications of type 2 diabetes, which is what treatment is all about. These complications include:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Nerve damage
- Loss of vision
- Kidney failure
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) outlines several ways you can manage and monitor diabetes:
Can you just ignore diabetes?
10 Early Signs of Diabetes that Shouldn’t be Ignored Posted January 10, 2022 by James Salem, MD High blood sugar can cause gradual, unassuming symptoms that can sneak up on you. Frequent urination and excessive thirst — the telltale signs of type 2 diabetes — are often mild and can easily be attributed to other factors. In fact, most people don’t even know they have high blood sugar until they’re diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
- Is a chronic condition that causes glucose (or sugar) levels in the body to rise.
- The problem is ignoring or writing off the symptoms as something else can lead to more serious health complications later on.
- Left untreated, diabetes can lead to,, nerve and kidney damage, vision loss and more.
- Even if you have mild blood sugar elevations, you can damage your organs.
Diabetes is a common condition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate more than 34 million people have diabetes in this country, with nearly 95 percent of those cases type 2 diabetes, and about 88 million more are prediabetic. Summa Health discusses 10 early warning signs of type 2 diabetes.
- Even if you have subtle symptoms, it’s worth mentioning them to your doctor, especially if you’re at risk for diabetes.
- The higher the blood sugar level and the longer you go without treatment, the further damage that can be done.
- Frequent urination: Going to the bathroom more than normal, especially at night, is a sign of high blood sugar.
Diabetes causes the kidneys to work harder to remove excess sugar from your blood. When your kidneys can’t keep up, they spill excess sugar into your urine, leading to more frequent urination. Repeat infections: The excess sugar in your urine serves as food for yeast and bacteria.
- Food coupled with a warm, moist area helps them thrive.
- So people, especially women, with diabetes often experience frequent urinary tract or yeast infections.
- Excessive thirst: Frequent urination can cause dehydration and you to feel thirsty more often.
- But, drinking more doesn’t satisfy the thirst.
- Constant hunger: Your body converts the food you eat into glucose that your cells use for energy.
But if you have diabetes, the cells can’t absorb glucose correctly, so your body can’t get enough energy from the food you eat. Therefore, your body is constantly looking for fuel and you’ll feel hungry all the time, even if you just ate. Unexplained weight loss: If your body can’t get enough energy from your food, it will start burning muscle and fat stores instead.
- So, you may lose weight even if your diet hasn’t changed.
- Persistent fatigue and weakness: Without enough fuel for energy, you’re left with persistent fatigue and weakness that can interfere with daily activities.
- Being dehydrated from constant urination can leave you feeling exhausted, as well.
- Poor vision: High blood sugar can damage blood vessels in your and you may experience blurry vision in either one or both eyes.
If left untreated, permanent damage can occur and lead to more serious complications, even blindness. Slow healing cuts and wounds: High blood sugar can damage nerves and blood vessels, impairing blood circulation. Poor blood circulation restricts the necessary nutrients and oxygen from getting to for proper healing.
Tingling or numbness: Poor blood circulation and nerve damage can cause tingling, numbness or pain in your hands and feet. Dark skin patches: Diabetes can cause dark, velvety patches of skin in the folds of your neck, armpits or groin due to an excess of insulin in the blood. Regular testing is key to avoiding complications Because diabetes symptoms can be subtle, it’s important to see your doctor regularly for checkups and diabetes screening.The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends everyone age 45 and older be screened for diabetes. However, testing is recommended at any age if you have one or more risk factors for diabetes, including:
Being overweight or obese Sedentary lifestyle Poor diet
The test for diabetes is often a simple blood test. For normal results, the ADA recommends repeat screening every three years. If caught early, type 2 diabetes can be very manageable. Lifestyle changes, such as a healthy diet and regular exercise, can go a long way in managing the condition.
Be sure to talk to your doctor about an evaluation at the first sign of symptoms. Early detection and treatment is vital to improving your quality of life and vastly reducing your risk of severe complications. Talk to a Summa Health about diabetes screening. To learn more about Summa Health Outpatient Diabetes Services, call 234.312.6420.
: 10 Early Signs of Diabetes that Shouldn’t be Ignored
What happens if diabetic eats sugar?
Your Kidneys – If you have diabetes, too much sugar can lead to kidney damage. The kidneys play an important role in filtering your blood. Once blood sugar levels reach a certain amount, the kidneys start to release excess sugar into your urine. If left uncontrolled, diabetes can damage the kidneys, which prevents them from doing their job in filtering out waste in your blood.
Is it too late if you have diabetes?
Tackling diabetes head-on – There’s no point in sugar-coating it. Diabetes, as it advances, become even more difficult to manage. Whether you have prediabetes, have just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or if your diabetes has been out of control for a long time, it’s never too late to stop diabetes in its tracks.
A primary care physician can diagnose and manage diabetes. But when patients’ blood sugars still aren’t under control, even if they are taking three or four medications, and their A1C remains above 8, it’s time to see an endocrinologist,” says Dr. Subramanian. An endocrinologist is a specialist in treating endocrine disorders, such as diabetes and hormone issues.
This specialist can reassess your current medications, as well as take into account any additional conditions and complications that need to be factored into your treatment plan. “When treating diabetes, some of the more common complications are kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and wound issues.
- Diabetes can become more difficult to treat when patients have multiple complications, such as kidney issues, because you cannot prescribe certain medications and the amount of medicine the patient can take probably is also restricted,” says Dr.
- Subramanian.
- Fortunately, there are medications to address some of these multiple complications.
“There are oral medications that can reduce heart failure risk or offer kidney protection, or injectables that can also help with weight loss while bringing bring down the blood glucose,” adds Dr. Subramanian. “Along with newer medications, now continuous glucose monitoring devices are available that continuously monitor your glucose and alert you if the glucose level is high or low, which helps you monitor your glucose closely and adjust your diet and medications to achieve better control of diabetes while avoiding hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).”
Can diabetes cause death during sleep?
1. Introduction – Sudden unexpected nocturnal death among patients with diabetes is greatly feared and poorly understood, occurring approximately ten times more commonly than in the general population, The “dead-in-bed” syndrome, by definition, has a negative autopsy and accounts for up to 6% of all deaths in type I diabetics under the age of 40 years,
- Hypoglycaemia has been put forward as the most likely explanation but has been excluded in some cases,
- The possibility that a cardiac ion channelopathy such as long QT syndrome or Brugada syndrome may cause death through a malignant arrhythmia in individuals with diabetes has been considered but never proven,
We report the postmortem molecular genetic investigation of a 16-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes who died in his sleep. His blood glucose had been well-controlled; he had a full stomach at autopsy and a glucose level in vitreous humor of 7 mmol/L. These features argue strongly against hypoglycaemia.
Can fasting help reduce diabetes?
Some work on people with diabetes has found that intermittent fasting may increase insulin sensitivity and also reduce insulin levels in the blood. This is a big deal. ‘Essentially, fasting is doing what we prescribe diabetes medications to do, which is to improve insulin sensitivity,’ Horne says.
Can diabetes be a silent killer?
What is Diabetes? –
How can undiagnosed diabetes make you feel?
What are the most common symptoms? – No individual is the same. The symptoms you experience won’t exactly match those of another person. However, the most common diabetes symptoms experienced by many people with diabetes are increased thirst, increased urination, feeling tired and losing weight. To find out more about common diabetes symptoms and what causes them, watch our video.
How does a person feel with undiagnosed diabetes?
What Are Symptoms of Diabetes? – Symptoms of type 1 diabetes often escalate quickly, within in a matter of weeks, while symptoms of type 2 diabetes usually develop slowly over several years. People who have type 2 diabetes may have no symptoms or only mild symptoms. The three most common symptoms of undiagnosed diabetes include:
Increased thirst (polydipsia)
High blood sugar levels cause increased thirst
Increased urination (polyuria)
Needing to urinate more throughout the dayUrinating more often than usual at night
Increased hunger (polyphagia)
Because diabetes makes it more difficult for the body to convert the glucose from foods into energy, people with high blood sugar levels are often more hungry Other symptoms of diabetes include:
Fatigue Blurred visionNumbness or tingling in the feet or handsSores that do not healUnexplained weight loss