Type 2 diabetes can jeopardize physical well being, endanger economic security and challenge the ability to work and play. It affects not only the person with the disease but also his entire family. With sleep optimization, adherence to proven dietary strategies, daily exercise and the use of oral medication or insulin, many complications of diabetes can be prevented or at least forestalled. Some families use the opportunity to jointly adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Medical Costs
One out of every five health care dollars in the United States is used to treat diabetic complications or to pay for hospital visits by diabetics whose blood sugar is out of control, according to a literature review by Elaine Briody, in the August 19, 2010 issue of "Fiscal Times." Paying these copays and deductibles results in a diversion of family resources that prevents saving, investment, vacation and other highly valuable uses of financial resources for many people.
Briody also notes that the $206 billion invested annually for diabetes is almost exclusively used to rescue those with complications such as pneumonia and cardiovascular disease which can commonly be prevented by strict conformance to best-practice recommendations in the areas of diet and exercise.
Loss of Life and Functionality
Beginning in the late 1990s, epidemiologists noted a new pattern emerging. For the first time in recorded human history children, adolescents and young adults were being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Until then this was considered to be a disease of the later middle years. This youthful trend is especially dangerous for young women and their children because preexisting diabetes seriously complicates pregnancy and pregnancy puts the life of the mother with diabetes at risk.
When a young person has type 2 diabetes, their hearts and blood vessels--including those of the kidneys, liver and brain--are impacted more rapidly than those of elder diabetics and glucose control is harder to achieve, according to International Diabetes Federation. This results in a greater chance of disability and death while at the same time younger adults require a higher level of wellness and functionality to build a career and raise children.
Increased Risks of Exposure to Infection
People with diabetes who do not have strict control of their blood glucose are at greater risk of attracting, harboring and growing bacterial, fungal and viral infections and those who live or work in close contact with them are subjected to an increased risk of exposure.
One example of this is seen world wide in the incidence of tuberculosis. A person with diabetes has a 300 percent higher risk of developing tuberculosis than a person without the disease living in the same community. As the number of people with type 2 diabetes rises from an estimated 180 million worldwide in 2008 to a predicted 360 million by 2030, those trying to eradicate tuberculosis will face a new obstacle according to Harvard professor, Christy Jeon, M.D. writing in the July 15, 2008 issue of PLoS Medicine.
Other infectious threats including wound, respiratory and fungal diseases are also more common in people with diabetes with poor glucose control and each infection places family members at risk of transmission.
Increased Demand for Transplant
More than 40 percent of kidney transplants are performed in the U.S. as a result of diabetes, according to the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disorders. The average length of time from a diagnosis of diabetes to end stage renal disease or kidney failure is 15 to 25 years. When diabetes begins at 60 and the patient experiences kidney failure at 85, daily dialysis may be manageable. But when diabetes begins at 10 and the person's kidneys have failed by age 35, there are too many years of life left for dialysis to be a viable alternative and transplant is the treatment of choice, according to the NIDDK.
Because living donor kidney transplant offers superior results, family members are increasingly being asked to consider serving as a designated living donor. Besides donating one kidney and a piece of pancreas, the procedure requires surgery and time away from work.
