Diabetes (medically known as diabetes mellitus) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia or high blood glucose concentration. While there is no cure for diabetes, proper actions can be taken to control glucose or sugar levels and prevent complications including diabetic retinopathy, which leads to total blindness; diabetic neuropathy, a decreased in sensation; diabetic nephropathy, damage to kidney leading to renal failure; heart diseases and stroke.

 "And  diabetes claims as many lives each year as the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, popularly known as AIDS, which is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. "It is just sad that people give more importance to AIDS since it is a new disease even while other diseases are just as fatal," he said. Willing said that more than 200 million people worldwide were diagnosed to have diabetes.   "The message is very simple. To prevent it, one must have a healthy weight and a healthy diet. Don't smoke and exercise regularly." The good news is, once diabetes is identified, it can be managed. "Even pre-diabetic people, over 60, can prevent full-blown diabetes if they become proactive and change their eating habits and exercise regularly,"  It costs about 150 dollars per month to treat diabetes. "It is important to remember that managing diabetes goes beyond controlling blood sugar levels. Monitoring blood pressure and cholesterol is critical to reducing mortality."

The People with diabetes must closely manage their blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or face a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, say three leading health organizations. Research has shown that two out of three people with diabetes die from a heart attack or stroke, making cardiovascular disease the number one killer of people with diabetes. In particular, tight control of blood glucose can significantly reduce the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke in people with diabetes, and fewer than 50 percent of Americans with diabetes are reaching the level of glucose control recommended.  "Controlling blood glucose, along with blood pressure and cholesterol, can help save not only a person's heart, eyesight and limbs, but a person's life. In fact, it is estimated that approximately 73 percent of adults with diabetes have high blood pressure and most have cholesterol levels that put them at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. To help manage blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol: make wise food choices, engage in daily physical activity and take prescribed medications. People with diabetes should also avoid smoking and consult their health providers about taking aspirin. Fifty-four million Americans - that’s one in six  -- have pre-diabetes and most don’t even realize it.

More than two million people in Canada have diabetes and their ranks are expected to swell as the population ages. "Many Canadian,  seniors with diabetes are not getting the medications they need to control high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, according to a study spearheaded by Dr. Baiju Shah.  and many seniors don't even know they are pre-diabetic — they think they are tired or just not well. (Pre-diabetic is when blood sugar levels are elevated but not high enough for the person to be considered diabetic.) A high cholesterol and high blood pressure are risk factors for both diabetes and heart disease.There is a great deal of evidence that hypertension (high blood pressure) control has the greatest benefit for diabetes patients, according to the study. "Everyone fusses about blood sugar, but the emphasis is changing now that we recognize the number-one killer of people with diabetes is heart disease,"   The finding is important because heart disease and strokes account for most deaths among diabetics. While examining blood tests from people over 65, researchers noted a high incidence of diabetes — much of it undiagnosed and untreated, according to Shah, a scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluation Sciences, an independent Toronto research facility."There are a couple of important messages here in relation to diabetes," Shah says. "This disease is a common condition in people over 65 and, by age 75, one in four have it."The study also revealed that the specialists prescribed the needed  medications more often than family doctors."

The Diabetes in Canada Evaluation (DICE) study, which included 243 family doctors who completed records for 2,473 patients with Type 2 diabetes, found that most patients have serious health problems associated with their diabetes: conditions such as heart disease, stroke, kidney and eye disease. In the DICE study, patients had cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure (more than 60 per cent) and high cholesterol (almost 60 per cent). Nearly 30 per cent had already had one or more microvascular complications such as kidney disease, nerve damage or eye disease. One of the findings of the DICE study was that family physicians need to be more aggressive in implementing appropriate treatment for certain patients.

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