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Better Diabetes Awareness Doesn’t Equal Better Habits for Some Blacks
Newswise — African-Americans who have family members with diabetes are more aware of the disease’s risk factors — but that awareness may not lead to a healthier lifestyle.

The type 2 diabetes epidemic disproportionately affects African-Americans, so researchers wanted to see whether having a family member with the disease had any influence on a person’s awareness or behavior. Their findings appear in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The study evaluated 1,122 African-American adults, living in Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C. None of the participants were diagnosed with diabetes; however, 36 percent reported that an immediate family member had the disease.
Participants where shown a seven-item list and asked whether any of the factors increase a person’s risk of developing diabetes. All seven items on the list are risk factors for diabetes — minority race or ethnicity, overweight, family history of diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, older age, high-calorie diet and diabetes during pregnancy.

Among the participants with a family history of diabetes, nearly 60 percent had a better- than-average awareness of the diabetes risk factors. About 47 percent of the participants with no family history demonstrated such awareness.

Yet, this awareness didn’t necessarily translate into healthy behavior. Source

Mobile lab helps UTSA tackle diabetes, obesity
Medical science is learning a lot about ways to prevent health problems like obesity and diabetes. Now, a San Antonio school has a new way to get that information to the people who need it most.

A 38-foot mobile home is part of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s newest community outreach project. It’s nothing fancy on the outside, but inside, it’s full of equipment to help with testing and education to tackle some of the biggest health problems in South Texas.

“Obesity, type 2 diabetes are going to equal and/or surpass cardiovascular disease as the number one killers in the U.S.,” said Donovan Fogt, Ph.D., an exercise biochemist at UTSA. Source

Our lifestyle helps fuel diabetes’ growth
At least 90 percent of people in the United States who have diabetes have the form of the disease known as type 2.

Diabetes has likely been around since ancient times. But it wasn’t until the 1920s, when scientists experimented on dogs whose pancreases had been removed, that insulin’s role in the disease became more fully understood. Diabetes has grown in recent decades, more than doubling from 1980 to 2004 and projecting to double again by 2050.

Why the increase now in modern society? Blame should not be placed solely on the American diet. People also have to be predisposed to diabetes to contract the illness. If risk were based only on being overweight, all NFL linebackers would have diabetes, said Dr. Steven Wittlin, clinical director of the division of endocrinology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Source

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Resources:
dLife; About Diabetes.com; American Diabetes Association

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Diabetes; Health News