Diabetes

What is diabetes?
Diabetes is the condition in which the body does not properly process food for use as energy.
Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use for energy. The
pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help
glucose get into the cells of our bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn't
make enough insulin or can't use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugars to
build up in your blood. This is why many people refer to diabetes as “sugar.”
Diabetes can cause serious health complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney
failure, and lower-extremity amputations. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in
the United States.
How prevalent is diabetes among blacks?
• Blacks are 1.7 times as likely to develop diabetes as whites
• The prevalence of diabetes among blacks has quadrupled during the past 30 years
• Among blacks age 20 and older, about 2.3 million have diabetes – 10.8 percent of that
age group
• Blacks with diabetes are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to develop diabetes and
to experience greater disability from diabetes-related complications such as
amputations, adult blindness, kidney failure, and increased risk of heart disease and
stroke;
• Death rates for blacks with diabetes are 27 percent higher than for whites.

Culled from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.