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Chronic Diseases

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Diabetes, also known as hyperglycemia, and heart disease, also known as cardiovascular disease, are two of the top chronic health conditions facing Americans today. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Americans are currently facing more diagnoses than ever before with type II diabetes and heart disease, which nearly triples the amount of diabetic diagnoses as compared to 10 to 20 years ago. It is estimated that nearly 26 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes as of 2010, with almost 2 million of those diagnosed individuals aged 20 or older. Would you believe that 26 million people is over 8% of our population with a diabetic diagnosis? Despite all of those suffering from diabetes, it’s heart disease that takes the prize for claiming the lives of more than 600,000 Americans each year. That means that 1 out of every 4 deaths was brought on from some form of cardiovascular disease. Even with these all-time high reported cases of diabetes and heart disease, it is suspected that there are millions of Americans whose cases never get reported to the Center for Disease Control because the disease was present and not detected, or the information was reported incorrectly to the agency. Diabetes is affecting more individuals without any regard to age, race or gender, while heart disease has been detected in individuals at much younger ages than in the past, effecting people as young as their 20s as opposed to their 60s and 70s. Heart disease too has no regard for age, race or gender, although it is reported that a slightly higher number of women are diagnosed with heart disease as compared to men. So what does all of this information mean? It means, according to the facts, it appears that no one is exempt from the possibility of becoming a victim to one of these raging diseases. Both diabetes and heart disease are similar in many ways being that both diseases threaten to shorten the lifespan of an individual if they go undetected or if proper care is not received. Both diabetes and heart disease have the potential to affect other areas of your health as well if proper treatment is not received. For example, high levels of glucose in the blood over time can lead to nerve damage, also known as Neuropathy, as well as kidney, liver and heart damage or reduction in function of those organs. In addition to organ damage or failure, partial or total blindness occurs in diabetics as well as the possible need for amputation. Diabetes and heart disease both affect the heart muscle and the surrounding tissues, weakening them over time from the stress put on the organ. Both diseases may produce factors for an individual that may limit one’s normal activities, resulting in need to make both minor and major lifestyle changes.

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