For World Diabetes Day, we are raising awareness of this illness which claimed 1 life every 9 seconds in 2024.[1]
While there are several kinds of diabetes the most common are Type 1 and Type 2. Glucose is a kind of sugar which gives us energy, diabetics are unable to utilise this sugar due to a number of factors including no insulin, a lack of insulin or insulin not working properly.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas which regulates the amount of glucose in the blood. In type 1 diabetes the body has an inability to produce insulin, whereas in type 2 diabetes the body does not produce enough insulin or the insulin produced does not work properly.
For diabetics eating a balanced diet is particularly important to help prevent the occurrence of high and low blood sugar; hypoglycemia (to little glucose in the blood) and hyperglycemia (too much glucose in the blood).
There were an estimated 830 million people living with diabetes worldwide in 2022, which has more than quadrupled since 1990.[2] This figure is expected to grow to 853 million by 2050.[3]
In the North America and Caribbean IDF (International Diabetes Federation) region, 15.1% of people are diabetic. 56 million people have diabetes in this region, that’s 1 in 7, and these figures are expected to increase to 22% (68 million) by 2050.[4]
For the United States specifically, the number of adults living with diabetes in 2024 was 38.5 million, which is expected to grow to 43 million by 2050.[5]
The economic burden of diabetes is greatest in this Region, where healthcare expenditure reaches USD 439 billion, accounting for 43% of the global total. Average spending per person with diabetes aged 20–79 is likewise the highest of any Region, at USD 7,811.[4]
Developments in stem cell research have yielded some positive results for diabetes. However, there is no cure available to the general public for diabetes at this moment in time.
[1] https://diabetesatlas.org/
[2] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes
[3] https://idf.org/about-diabetes/diabetes-facts-figures/
[4] https://diabetesatlas.org/data-by-location/region/north-america-and-caribbean/
[5] https://diabetesatlas.org/data-by-location/country/united-states-of-america/
