CDC Releases Alarming Diabetes Prediction
(KCBS) - A new projection released Friday by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the number of Americans with diabetes had the potential to double or triple by 2050.
KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:
"We are projecting a range of one in three to one in five people having diabetes when we get out to 2050," warned Ann Albright, PhD, RD and director of the Division of Diabetes Translation for the CDC. "And that's very alarming."
In 2010, one in ten adults was a diagnosed diabetic.
Albright described the diabetes trend as alarming.
"Unsustainable," she declared. "I mean, really, one in three of us? I mean, all you have to do is go to a family event and if you've got fifteen people in that room, one in three of those will have diabetes in the future. That's unbelievable."
Diabetes ranked as the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.
Albright stressed the importance of a good diet and exercise to reduce risk of the disease.
"We're also finding people earlier in the course of their diabetes and we have fewer people that are undiagnosed."
"People with diabetes are living longer and you know, once you get diabetes you don't get to give it back. Until we find cures you've got the disease and so once people have it and they live longer, it's going to add to our total numbers."
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