With Prediabetes and Diabetes on the Rise, 5 Things You Must Know

• More than 100 million U.S. adults are living with diabetes or prediabetes.
• Worldwide there are 422 million people with diabetes. With 1.6 million deaths a year directly attributed to diabetes.
• Nearly 1 in 4 four adults living with diabetes don’t know they have the condition. That’s 7.2 million Americans. Only 11.6 percent of adults with prediabetes know they have it.
• It’s important to raise awareness of diabetes.
• Left without intervention, prediabetics is likely to develop diabetes within 5 to 10 years.

Are You at Risk of Diabetes?

You can get screened for diabetes and prediabetes. If you have risk factors such as having a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, inactive and overweight. I recommend that anyone over the age of 40 should be screened.

Risk Factors Include:

• Family history
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Being inactive
• Being overweight (especially belly f...