The Impact Of Diabetes And How It Is Affecting Australian People

We live in an era of rapid technological change, and this environment, undoubtfully changes the human health. Diabetes is one of the most widespread diseases, unfortunately. Therefore, there is a pressing need to inform people about healthy ways of living and a caring approach to their health. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is one of the organizations that try, to prevent diabetes and raise awareness on the disease in the US and around the world. Unfortunately, it has a set of weaknesses, which influence not only the work of the organization, but the general public’s opinion of it as well.

Diabetes has recently become a focal point of health care systems around the world due to its high prevalence and the severity of secondary complications caused by the disease. Over the course of my project on diabetes, I have had the opportunity to speak with a group of diabetics to understand from a patient’s perspective how diabetes is managed in a rural community. While I found that while some patients ignored treatment and refused to make any dietary changes, the majority of the patients I interviewed were well-informed and actively managing diabetes in their everyday life.

The American Diabetes Association (2004) defines diabetes as a subset of metabolic diseases associated with hyperglycemia secondary to insulin failing to release, act, or both. Complications related to chronic diabetes can be detrimental to one’s health including but not limited to: heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, amputations, blindness, and other optical diseases. Furthermore, the prevalence of diabetes is rising at an astronomical rate within the United States as well as internationally. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2016) an estimated 29 million people suffer with diabetes and 86 million are prediabetic within the United States (US). Without major interventions from the healthcare community,

Although heredity plays an important role whether a person inherits diabetes and to what extent, it can be controlled through useful methods that are affordable. By changing environmental risk factors, people can reduce their risk of developing diabetes. Increasing awareness of diabetes which is a major setback for some socio-economical background and rural areas as not enough awareness is made to the general public. Identifying people at risk for the disease is also another

This essay will focus on type 2 diabetes, which is becoming one of the fast growing chronic health conditions in the United Kingdom (UK). Approximately 700 people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes each day in the UK (Diabetes Uk, (2014)a). It is costing the NHS about £10billion pounds each year to treat diabetes along with its complication and it is expected to rise in the next couple of years (Diabetes UK, (2014)b).

Those people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are more likely to consume an unhealthy diet with high levels of saturated fats, consume large amount of alcohol, smoke, be in an unhealthy weight range, and participate in little or no physical activity. Lower levels of education have lower levels of literacy and are less aware of the risk factors and protective behaviours therefore increasing prevalence of type-2 or gestational-diabetes. Income can also restrict access for some health services such as specialists. People with low socioeconomic status are also likely to show more than one risk factor associated with diabetes, greatly increasing the chance of developing diabetes, in which the prevalence is 3.6 times more likely to suffer from diabetes and 2 times as likely to die from

Diabetes affects over 180 million people in the US and is projected that by 2025 this figure will increase to 300 million.

Diabetes mellitus is a disease caused by the loss of the ability to control the glucose level in the blood by the loss of insulin. This disease can be of many types, but the prevalence of type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes are mostly seen in Australia, with type 2 being more common (AIHW, 2011). 4% of Australians have Diabetes, and according to the 2004-2005 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, diabetes was three times more common in Indigenous Australians than in the Non-Indigenous Australians.

There are some factors that are non-modifiable and create a predisposition to the onset of developing Type 2 Diabetes. These non-modifiable factors include family history, race/ethnicity and age, and cannot be changed by lifestyle choices. Type 2 diabetes is traditionally a late onset disease however it is becoming more frequent to be diagnosed as a young person. Alpurrulam’s student network is made up of 89% Indigenous students alone. “Indigenous people were three times more likely to be living with Type 2 Diabetes than non-Indigenous people” (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2004-05). It is vital for our students to be educated on Type 2 Diabetes because of the high vulnerability of our school population of developing this lifestyle disease.

There are over 1.5 million Australians with diabetes. The groups most at risk are people aged over 45 years old, overweight people, people with family history, females with the history of gestational diabetes, people who consume a diet high in sugar, and ATSI people.

Diabetes is a condition that affected nearly one hundred and fifteen millions Americans in 2012 ("Statistics About Diabetes"). A big number of the individuals is being affected, but it is frightening that diabetes awareness is not emphasized as greatly as other conditions. Diabetes is the increase in blood sugar, which can lead to heart disease. Heart disease is still as of today, the leading cause of death in the United States of America, so diabetes should be taken seriously. Although there is no cure as of today, there are a lot of steps that can be taken in order to maintain the condition.

Diabetes is one of the biggest challenges facing Australians. One person is diagnosed every five minutes equating to 280 Australians diagnosed every day. In total 1.7 million Australian’s suffer from all types of diabetes. Diabetes is one of the most fastest growing condition is Australia. It’s increasing at a faster rate than heart diseases and cancer. 10% of people with diabetes are type 1, the other 85% of diabetes are type 2 and the rest have gestational diabetes in pregnancy. Diabetes is caused when the body can’t maintain glucose in the blood. People that suffer from diabetes must watch their sugar intake to ensure a healthy lifestyle.

The aim of this report is to investigate the effect of Diabetes in Scotland and to investigate the effect it has on society and the health services.

Diabetes is a major problem in our society today. Many people have heard about the disease; however, they do not know too much about its complications. Diabetes is a chronic, progressive and lifelong condition that affects the body’s ability to use the energy found in food (WebMD, 2016). Many new cases are confirmed every year and unfortunately, many go undiagnosed for years. Diabetes is a serious disease and need to be taking seriously. The disease can lead to many other health problems such as blindness, nerve damage and kidney diseases. The more the community understand and made aware of the seriousness of the disease, the better it can be control and or prevented.

Diabetes has been out for thousands of years and still no cure. researchers and scientist have been searching and searching for ways to overcome this disease but nothing yet. Everyone goals are to either improve, prevent, or cure this disease. Diabetes became very known around the seventeenth century because of a high percentage of people was found with sugar in their urine and blood. Diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases that affects our society worldwide. The average person in this world does not know anything about this disease. The diabetes association said “In 2013 the estimate of 328 million people had diabetes throughout the world”. Society today need to be aware of what we are up against with this disease.