Diabetes and African Americans

Diabetes and African Americans

Introduction

United States of America allocates a huge portion of funds to the health sector for the sake of providing equal and quality health facilities to all its citizens. However, despite of all the efforts made, many minor diseases have known to cause some of the major health concerns for the country's health officials. Obesity, hepatitis, pneumonia and several other diseases that are easily curable otherwise are causing the death of many American citizens. The most troubling disease however remains Diabetes. The most affected population to the disease remains the African American population. Moreover, very little is done to control and prevent the prevalence of disease in this particular ethnicity of America, which is already prone to the disease.

Overview

According to surveys conducted in 1998, 1.5 million African Americans of the 35 million were diagnosed with diabetes, which is 4 times the population in 1968.Approximately 730,000 African Americans are diabetic however remain naive of the fact. The disease is common among older adults, middle-aged women. 19% of men and 28% of women over the age of 50 are diabetic. Death rate for individuals with diabetes is 27% higher for blacks as opposed to whites.

Defining Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus or Diabetes is a group of many diseases identified by higher levels of blood glucose. The disease results from defects in insulin action, insulin secretion, or both. The disease is categorized into two Types known as Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 occurs because of body's immune system attacking and destroying its own beta cells found in pancreas responsible for producing Insulin. Type 2 diabetes occurs when one's body does not either produce sufficient insulin or cannot use it effectively. About 90 to 95 % of adults diagnosed with diabetes are Type 2.

Factors Contributing to the Disease

There are two basic factors that contribute towards prevalence of disease in the African American population. These include

Genetics

Many scientists have concluded that genes of an individual have a major role to play in the occurrence of disease. Many researchers have also concluded that African American population has inherited from their African ancestors, a "thrifty gene". This gene enabled the Africans few years back, to utilize food energy efficiently when food was in short supply. Today, however, with fewer of such scenarios, the thrifty gene results in making the African Americans more susceptible to diabetes type 2 (Tull, 1995).

Medical Risk Factors

There are a number of factors that are responsible for the occurrence of Diabetes in Afro American population. These include

IGT (Impaired Glucose Tolerance)

Blood glucose levels in some individuals after a meal rises higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed with the disease. Individuals with IGT are prone to type 2 diabetes. According to the NHANES III survey, the rate of black adults aging from 40-47 years is 13%.

GDM (Gestational Diabetes)

Gestational diabetes occurs as a result of mild abnormalities in insulin secretion and glucose levels in women during pregnancy. These levels do not return to normal after ...