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Diabetes in African Americans

             Diabetes mellitus is a disorder which causes blood levels of the glucose to become high because the body does not use or release insulin (a hormone produced by the pancreas) adequately. The oxidation or metabolism of these sugars from carbohydrates is the major source of energy for the human body. Diabetes mellitus (Type 2 diabetes) is the 7th leading cause of death in African Americans. National Surveys during the past 35 years show that the percentage of African Americans with this disease has increased greatly. There are several causes that increase the risk for this disease. There are preventive ways to keep a person from getting this deadly disease. In the event that one does contract the disease there are ways to control it.
             The first risk factor is genetics, which includes inherited traits and group ancestry. Studies show that diabetes does run in families. If a mother or father has this disease, it is more likely that their descendants will have it too. Researchers are conducting studies to figure out which gene is most likely to be passed on to cause this disease. Some researchers think that African Americans have a "thrifty gene." This "thrifty gene" was passed down from African ancestors. It enabled them to live having very little food during the famine months. They used the food more efficiently when food was hard to be found. Since ample food is available for most African Americans today, this gene might make African Americans more open for diabetes. .
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             Medical risk factors include that can cause diabetes are pre diabetes, gestational diabetes, insulin resistance, and obesity. .
             Pre Diabetes is also known as IGT (Impaired Glucose Tolerance). It's a condition were the blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be considered type II diabetes. However, a person having blood sugar levels at this level are at a high risk of contracting type II diabetes.


Essays Related to Diabetes in African Americans

1. Diabetes

... most serous complications heart disease, blindness, amputations, and end stage renal disease. Diabetes related blindness are twice as likely to happen in African Americans. African Americans are 1.5 to 2.5 more likely to suffer from lower limb amputations. Kidney disease is big in African Americans, African Americans that have diabetes are 2.6 to 5.6 times more likely to have from kidney disease. Among African American there are 4,000 new cases of the end stage renal disease every ... year. In diabetes African-American omen's health is says "There is a genetic component that places ethn...

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2. Diabetes And Types

... are not really sure what causes type 2 diabetes but they do know that it runs in families. . Some risk factors for type 2 are genetics, age, and race (Greenberger 113). The age that type 2 mostly affects is people that are over 30 years old. The race that type 2 strikes mostly is Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics. Anther risk factor is women who ... regularly may help prevent insulin resistance and the development of diabetes. There are 3 risk factors for gestational diabetes. The first one is genetics, which runs in families (Parkers 159). The second risk factor is obes...

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3. Diabetes

... produce enough insulin, the constant demand for it in the body can render the pancreas unable to produce any more - it just dies out, so to say. People that are older, overweight, and/or have a family history of type 2 are at a greater risk. For some reason, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. There are cases of juvenile onsets of ... type 2, but they are rare. Some control their type 2 diabetes with a strict diet and exercise program along with oral medication to help the body use its insulin. Others ... are not so fortunate and ha...

  • Word Count: 1130
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Diabetes: Types and Treatments

... disease are environmental factors like what you eat and how often you do or do not exercise. Statistics show that diabetes is more likely to be inherited within certain ethnic groups. Hispanics, Asians, and African/African Americans have higher chances of having diabetes by inheriting it from their father or mother. Its common that people who are type two diabetics have no symptoms. ... Blurry vision, dehydration, and frequent urination are symptoms in type two diabetics. Gestational diabetes is another form of the disease that is found during pregnancy ... glaucoma. My father is a diabe...

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5. The Growing Epidemic of Diabetes

... systems, which has two specific functions, endocrine and other exocrine. Endocrine function is responsible for producing and secreting two important hormones, insulin and glucagon, through structures called Islets of Langerhans. In these structures, the alpha cells produce glucagon, which raises the level of blood glucose and the beta cells produce insulin, which binds to receptor sites on the outside of a cell ... at older ages." [ CITATION Fis15 l 1033 ]. According to these results, people from fifty-five and sixty-four are the most diagnosed with diabetes in the USA population. One fac...

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6. Diabetes

... pancreas produces a sufficient amount of insulin, but the insulin is blocked from the body's cells and cannot be used. This causes diabetes patients to have abnormally high amounts of sugar in their blood and urine. Diagnosing a patient with diabetes is more complicated than measuring the glucose level of urine only one time. Instead the diagnosis involves several hours of glucose-tolerance tests ... in people over the age of forty. Of all the people in the United States over sixty-five years old, 18.4% of them have diabetes. Between sixty and ninety percent of diabetes patients are over...

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7. Diabetes

... the pancreas region, and destroys them. When a person has type 1 diabetes, they have to take insulin everyday in order to live. Type one diabetes is found in about 5-10% of the population with diabetes in the U.S. Type 2 diabetes is found in about 95% of people with diabetes. It is the most common form. This form usually develops in people over the age of 55. Also, about 80% of the ... people with type 2 diabetes are overweight. Type 2 diabetes is often a part of a metabolic ... , also known as insulin resistance. After a few years, the insulin production begins to weaken and the same t...

  • Word Count: 513
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8. The Causes of Diabetes

... exercise regularly (Overview). Most of the time people who develop diabetes must inherit the right genes from both their mother and father (Genetics). Results have shown that in the United States African- American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans have the highest risk of being diagnosed with diabetes because of their genetic background (Overview). Researchers are in the process of finding a way to predict a person's odds of ... developing diabetes from race and special gene tests (Genetics). Environmental triggers are also a factor ... ...

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9. Diabetes

... failure. About 17 million people in the United States have diabetes, and over 100,000 people are living with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. People with kidney failure undergo either dialysis, which substitutes for some of the filtering functions of the kidneys, or transplantation to receive a healthy donor kidney. African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic Americans develop diabetes, nephropathy, and kidney failure at ... , diet, and other medical conditions, such as high blood pressure and high levels of blood glucose increase the risk of that person with diabetes will pr...

  • Word Count: 1053
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