American Diabetes Alert Day – March 24
March 24th, 2009According to the American Diabetes Association, 23.6 million children and adults have diabetes in the US. Dr. Martin Silink, the president-elect of the International Diabetes Federation, says ”diabetes is one of the biggest health catastrophes the world has ever seen.” The rate at which the incidence of diabetes is growing is what is causing so much concern. Globally, it has increased from 30 million to 230 million during the last 20 years, according to the International Diabetes Federation. Domestically, the diabetes epidemic is growing by almost 5% a year, according to a study led by Linda S. Geiss, of the Center for Disease Control. “We found that diabetes and obesity are growing together,” Geiss stated, “It has grown for the last 15 years and there is no hint of it slowing down.”
There are several studies which suggest that Oxidative Stress is related to diabetes. Motz and Ceriello (2004) published a paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association called Is Oxidative Stress the Pathogenic Mechanism Underliying Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease? The Common Soil Hypothesis Revisited, reviewing the data and studies regarding the topic. They concluded “a puzzle of many pieces of evidence suggests that free radical overgeneration may be considered the key in the generation of insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.” An additional concern is that recent research suggests that Diabetes may increase the risk of Alzheimers as reported last week by Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press. Given that oxidaticve stress damage appears to be a factor in both diseases, this is not surprizing. See Alzheimers Related to Oxidative Stress.