DIABETES: THE SCARY TRUTHS YOU NEVER KNEW
More than 18 million people in the United States have diabetes, and
about a third of them don’t even know it. What’s more,the numbers are rising
among adults and children alike, primarily due to lifestyle issues such
as obesity. In fact, one in three Americans born in the year 2000 will
develop adult-onset (type 2) diabetes. Are you at risk? What can you do
in terms of prevention?
Research in diabetes prevention and management reveals new information
every year. The experts at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine urge you
to test your knowledge by taking this quiz. Reduce your chances of developing
this debilitating disease, and save yourself a lifetime of costly and sometimes
painful medical management, just by making a few lifestyle changes.
1. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95 percent of diabetes
cases, is typically associated with all of the following except:
(A) An autoimmune disorder
(B) Obesity
(C) Heredity
(D) Pregnancy
2. Your level of physical fitness is a better indicator of your risk
for diabetes than your weight:
(A) True (B) False
3. Once you become diabetic, you can easily manage it with daily insulin
treatments. It’s not a death sentence.
(A) True (B) False
4. The current methods used to treat someone already “prediabetic” include
all of the following except:
(A) A low-calorie, low-fiber diet
(B) Exercising at least 30 minutes a day
(C) Weight loss
(D) Quitting smoking
ANSWERS
1. A. Heredity, pregnancy, and especially obesity are accountable for
the vast majority of type 2 diabetes cases. Type 1 diabetes—not type 2—is
an autoimmune disease in which the body produces antibodies that attack
and damage the cells in the pancreas responsible for secreting insulin.
People with type 1 diabetes therefore fail to produce adequate insulin.
2. B. Weight plays a far greater role than exercise. About 80%
of people with type 2 diabetes are obese, and the risk of type 2 rises
as a person’s weight increases. A recent study on women showed that, compared
to women of normal weight, those who were overweight had more than three
times the risk of diabetes, and those who were obese had more than nine
times the risk. By contrast, women who were active reduced their risk of
diabetes by just 15 percent compared with inactive women. (In fairness,
however, exercise does have an impact on cardiovascular health and aids
in weight management.)
3. B. One of the scariest truths about diabetes is that it’s not necessarily
easy to manage. To the contrary, it’s a leading cause of heart disease,
kidney failure, amputations, and blindness. It generates a host of problems
that have no quick fixes, including skin lesions, infections, arterial
diseases, and strokes.
4. A. Forty-one million adults currently suffer from “prediabetes,”
a condition in which their blood-sugar levels are elevated enough to significantly
increase their risk of developing diabetes. But most prediabetics don’t
even know they are at risk because they don’t experience symptoms, and
at least half go on to develop full-blown diabetes. New studies point to
a fiber-rich diet as a way to cut diabetes risk. Specifically, eating whole-grain
foods may lower the risk of metabolic problems that set the stage for diabetes
and heart disease. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet (i.e., weight
management) is the best way to prevent—and even treat—diabetes.
Excerpted from the 2006 Johns Hopkins White Paper: Diabetes,
copyright Medletter Associates, LLC
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