Diabetis in African Americana

In the article , Diabetis Deadly for African Americans by Drancir Semaj, they discuss the deadly diseases of Diabetis on African Americans. It is the fifth cause of death to them and death rates are 27 % higher than whites.
Over 2.8 million African Americans have diabetis and 1/3 of them don't even know it! 25% of African Americans between 65 to 74 years of age have it and 1 in 4 African American women over 55 years of age have it.
People beleive genetics and environmental factors cause this disease. Also hereditary is a big factor. It is felt that African Americans have inherited a \" thrifty gene"\ from African ancestors and that is a big reason they get the diabetis. That gene may have helped people in the past with the use of food as energy in the days of famine and starvation. It obviously is not needed as much in African Americans because there is not nearly as much fasting or starvetion occuring. Genetic predisposition with impaired glucose tolerance is towards higher blood pressure, so they are higher to get diabetis.
It is sugar diabetis when the body is not able to produce or use insulin. It is needed to process sugar.
5 to 10% of the African Americans have type 1 of juvinele -onset diabetis. And 90-95% of African Americans have type II diabetis or adult onset diabetis. Also they are twice as likely to suffer from diabetis related blindness-"Diabetic Retinopathy".
So this is the fifth leading cause of death and the second leading cause of end stage kidney disease in African Americans.
So we can see with this that Diabetis is a much more deadly disease for African Americans than the whites are effected. It is terribly sad to see and hopefuly in time they are able to be able to change this terrible situation for the African Americans



http://www.africanamericans.com/Diabetes.htm