Dr. Ernest Levister Jr.

The CDC also estimates that 21 million Americans have high blood sugar levels and are therefore diabetic, but don't realize it because the outward signs are not showing...yet. The CDC also estimates 41 million others are pre-diabetic, with blood sugar levels steadily increasing. Most people with early signs of the disease are not taking necessary action by more-carefully choosing what they eat.

The CDC says that one of the major causes of this explosion is that health-services have concentrated on higher-profile communicable diseases such as cancer, TB, heart disease and HIV/AIDS.

Blacks are 1.8 times more likely to have diabetes than Whites with an estimated 3.2 million non-Hispanic Blacks living with the disease today. Blacks die from complications of the disease at a higher rate due to disparities in health care (late diagnosis/poor treatment) and unhealthy personal habits such as smoking and obesity. 

The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) has developed an easy to read and follow discussion guide targeting Blacks with diabetes. The guide is titled, New Beginnings: A Discussion Guide for Living Well with Diabetes. The guide's lead character who has type 2 diabetes takes readers on an emotional journey while experiencing some of the disease's telltale symptoms.

The guide will assist employers, community health workers, health care providers, faith-based organizations, educators and others who work with the public to reduce the burden of diabetes.

Diabetics are four times as likely to experience a heart attack or stroke and three times more likely to die of complications from renal failure, pneumonia or flu. Perhaps most horrible of all, approximately 50% of so-called "lower limb" amputations are diabetes-related; mainly caused by peripheral vascular disease and infection.

For more information, or to obtain a copy of the discussion guide, visit: www.ndep.nih.gov.