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Diabetes is the body's inability to metabolize glucose, the sugar that provides the energy we need for proper bodily functioning and for life itself. Many African Americans call it "sugar," but it's hard to imagine a more bitter illness. Diabetes is a versatile killer, causing heart disease, kidney disease, limb loss and blindness. November is American Diabetes Month, an impetus to educate and mobilize ourselves.
One in 11 African Americans suffers from diabetes; and nearly all have Type II diabetes, which typically appears in adulthood and is managed with a careful diet, exercise and medications. Only 5 percent of diabetics suffer from Type I diabetes, which usually appears in children and is treated with diet and insulin.
The rates of diabetes are increasing for all Americans, but are rising so much faster for African Americans that the disparity is widening, not narrowing. The death rate per 100,000 people rose slowly from 38 in 1986 to 40 in 1995 for most Americans, but for African Americans it increased dramatically, from 67 to 76 in less than a decade. Yet, death is only one face of this tragedy. The heartbreaking complications of diabetes such as blindness, end-stage kidney disease and the often necessary amputation of feet and legs strike blacks more frequently. For example, the racial disparity in kidney disease rates rose nearly 500 percent between 1987 and 1996. Fortunately the gap in limb amputations has begun to decrease.
Although diabetes runs in families, recent research suggests that we can end the racial disparity in diabetes if we change our lifestyles. People at risk for diabetes who control their weight through proper diet and exercise can avoid, or at least delay, becoming diabetic. This is why the Health Resources and Services Administration launched an intensive effort in 1998 to help its community health centers care for 6.5 million people who are racial minorities. |
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