A Short Note On Diabetes And Its Effects On Health

Obesity rates in the US are rising due to food insecurity. One in six people in the U.S. are food insecure, while two-thirds of adults and one-third Americans are overweight or obese.14 Studies have found that wealthy districts have three times as many supermarkets compared to the poor.15 Kevin Conocannon of the USDA noted in an interview that people in poorer areas sometimes have narrower variety of food options.16 SNAP recipients face barriers to achieving nutritious diets due to lack of availability in their neighborhood. Healthy food often comes with higher costs, so most people with lower income result to eating foods with lower cost and higher calories. According to a 2009 report by the USDA, as many as 23.5 million Americans live more than one mile from a supermarket with limited access to a vehicle.17 Food Deserts are particularly prevalent in low-income communities.18

Individuals of higher income levels often have private insurance that allows them to see a physician on a regular basis. These individuals are able to prevent many diseases before they exacerbate. They often eat low fat diets or plant based diets. They are educated on their nutritional health and often make better choices when choosing the different types foods to eat. Due to their income, they can afford to eat healthy food and make healthy food choices. Even though these individuals may be predisposed to certain diseases, their diets prevent them from becoming prevalent in their lives. Due to the individual’s socioeconomic status they make enough money that they don’t stress about the necessities in life. These individuals live in areas such as Roswell, Johns Creek. Alpharetta, Buckhead, Kennesaw, and Stockbridge. Individuals of a poor economic status have limited access to healthcare. These individuals often have Medicaid, Medicare, or no health insurance at all. They often eat diets that are high in fat. Individuals of poor economic status aren’t often educated about eating healthy. They often eat unhealthy because it is too expensive to eat healthy. These individuals often receive government subsidiaries such as WIC and SNAP benefits for themselves and their children. There aren’t many healthy food stores if any at all in these neighborhoods. Stores such as Whole Foods, Sprout, and Trader Joe’s aren’t located in poverty stricken communities because the individuals can’t afford the prices. It is a disadvantage that the grocery chains in the neighborhood don’t offer the resident a healthier option. Individuals of poor economic status often fight chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and often cancer. They often live sedentary lifestyles that contribute to these diseases. They eat diets that are high in red meats one that contributes to

“Food is life. It is necessity and pleasure, family and community, culture and power.” Food is what lets us take a break during the day, and most importantly, healthy food gets us ready and energized for the busy day ahead. However, many Americans do not have access to healthy foods. Many low-income communities in the inner cities do not have access to healthy foods. Many of these communities live more than a mile away from a supermarket and transportation is often unavailable. Even when transportation is available, or one lives close to a supermarket, purchasing healthy food and fresh produce can be very expensive. Many people end up buying unhealthy food products from their local corner stores, which can’t afford to stock healthy fruits and vegetables like large grocery stores. Lack of access to healthy food is a race issue. Disproportionate access to healthy foods between whites and African Americans is extremely common. The data shows that African Americans have greater health issues and limited access to healthy food. Obesity rates are 50% higher for

Factors that attribute to the obesity crisis include increased consumption of sugary sodas, high-fat and high-calorie foods, an increase in sedentary activities, inadequate and poorly implemented physical education programs in schools, and unhealthy food options in the school systems (National Institute for Health Care Management, 2017). Children in low-income communities also have fewer resources, such as recreational programs or parks, and less access to full-service grocery stores, which has a significant impact on America’s rising childhood obesity rate (University of Michigan Health System, 2016). Food deserts are areas within the United States that do not have sufficient amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy whole foods, lack farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers (American Nutrition Association, 2012). The population most impacted by such food deserts are the impoverished, and their only solution to obtain food is through the purchase of food at convenience stores. The food that is often available at such facilities includes sugary, high-fat, and high-calorie foods, all leading to the obesity epidemic (American Nutrition Association, 2012).

Diabetes is a disease that can lead to heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, nerve damage, or blindness (Turkoski, 2006). It not only costs many individuals their lives, but it also causes untold emotional and physical problems for people with diabetes and their families. In addition, the cost of care associated with diabetes and the associated complications exceeds $132 billion annually.

Citizens have been struggling for far too long, and that is when former First Lady Michelle Obama created her own fresh food initiative, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, was launched and opened supermarkets in close reach to some of the most low-income neighborhoods. Many people would think the opening of closer stores would help the low-income families, but “a 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed no connection between access to grocery stores and more healthful diets using 15 years’ worth of data from more than 5,000 people in five cities” (Gilligan). The problem is not always what it seems to be, and sometimes many people forget that, Bruce McEwan, a researcher in biology believes strongly that there is other things behind low-income families not eating healthy.

Food insecurity has been affecting the US population as about more than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income urban and rural neighborhoods that are more than a mile from a supermarket. These communities are much known since they lack access to affordable, nutritious food. Vault and healthy food should be affordable; policy or a plan that would improve our food supply or the health of the population should be put into consideration in order to enhance the American population’s public health.

Diabetes kills more Americans each year than Breast Cancer and AIDS. Diabetes is a widespread disease affecting people of all age, race, size and gender. Most people think that it comes from what you eat and drink but, its actually hereditary.

There are many places in the United States where it is hard to find a supermarket that sells these healthy foods. They are surrounded by convenience stores and fast food restaurants. If these parents in these areas are able to find healthy foods in a supermarket, that doesn’t mean they will be able to afford the healthy food. This becomes a major problem for low-income families.

It is not always easy to access healthier food choices due to location or cost for some of the struggling families in the United States. The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors addresses the need for a “population-bases public health strategy” that will reach everyone in the community (Why We Need). In the article “Why we need Public Health to Improve Healthcare,” the National Association of Chronic Disease Directions give 6 “Keys to Progress.” Theses keys are health in all policies, health promotion to ensure better choices, working with all ages, procced based on science, address disparities, and adjust proportion of the issues for

Diabetes mellitus is a major chronic and complex public health problem that is affecting over 31 million people worldwide (Nguyen, 2014). Approximately fifty percent of people living with diabetes are undiagnosed and it has been estimated that every ten seconds three persons are diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (American Diabetes Association, 2008). In the United States, nearly 26 million adults and children are diagnosed with diabetes, another 7 million are undiagnosed and 79 million living with pre-diabetes (American Diabetes Association, 2012). The total amount of healthcare expenditure for diabetes in the United States was $245 billion of which $176 billion in direct medical costs and $69 billion in reduced productivity (Selp, 2015). Diabetes is one of the nation’s most deadly diseases and has been a contributor to major health consequences such as kidney failure, blindness, stroke, heart disease, non- traumatic limb amputation and the fifth leading cause of death in the United States (Nguyen, 2014). Despite the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the United States there is a significant disparity in non-Hispanic Blacks living with diabetes (Ogden, 2012). Several factors such as body weight, physical inactivity, cultural influences, environmental and psychosocial issues have been identified as contributing to the disparity.

Diabetes Mellitus is a disease that affects 9.3% of the American population, and also accounts for being the 7th leading cause of death in the United States. Diabetes can be an undoubtedly frightening, but controllable disease. There are a few ways to prevent some cases of diabetes and also steps that can be taken to lessen the effect of the disease on one’s life who has it.

Diabetes is a health condition that described with elevated level of glucose in the blood as a result of the body’s inability to produce any or not enough insulin causing hyperglycemia. In fact, diabetes is the sixth factor of causing in death in the U.S due to its correlation to cardiovascular diseases (Hummel& Schnell, 2009). Not to mention that diabetes has its health complication: Kidney failure, blindness, and lower limb amputations. In 2014, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the number of diabetic reached 29.1 million people in the U.S, which is a 9.3 % of the total population. In fact, in the same report pointed out that 37% of the total U.S population (adults aged 20 and older) is prediabetic based on

access to enough food to support a healthy lifestyle” (Feedingamerica.org). Because people have limited access for food to attain a

In 2012 29.1 million Americans had diabetes of those 29.1 million, 21.0 million were diagnosed and 8.1 million were undiagnosed. What is diabetes mellitus, a deficiency of the pancreatic hormone insulin which results in a failure to metabolize starch and sugars. There are two types of Diabetes, Type 1 which is absolute insufficiency of insulin and Type 2 is when the pancreas does not secrete enough insulin. The pathophysiology of Type 1 diabetes, manifests as a result of the body’s immune system attacking the insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas, a lack of insulin in the blood causes inadequate amount of glucose to be taken up by the cells which provides energy for cellular function. The pathophysiology of Type 2 diabetes occurs when there is a diminished ability of cells to respond to the action of insulin in transporting glucose from the bloodstream into muscle and other tissues this is called insulin resistance this develops with overweight.