Learn Your Risk for Diabetes and Take Steps to Protect Your Health

If you are diagnosed in the early stages of diabetes, you can take better care of yourself and get treatment. If you have prediabetes, you can take steps to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Yet more than one-quarter of people with type 2 diabetes don't know they have the disease. Many Americans with prediabetes also do not realize they have this condition, a diagnosis which raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Knowing your risk lets you take charge of your health by making lifestyle changes, such as staying physically active and eating nutritious foods.

Diabetes Alert Day is March 22, 2011. Take the opportunity to learn more about your risk and how you can prevent type 2 diabetes and its complications.

To find out more about what increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and to check your risk, take CDC's Diabetes Risk Test, located on this page. If you think you are at risk, talk to your health care provider about getting tested.

Are You at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes?

Most Americans with diabetes have type 2 diabetes (also called adult-onset diabetes). You are at higher risk if you are:

Obese
Have a parent, brother or sister with type 2 diabetes
Age 45 or older
Developed diabetes while pregnant (gestational diabetes)
Are not physically active
Belong to certain racial or ethnic groups. African Americans, Hispanic/Latino, American Indians, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are at particularly high risk for type 2 diabetes.

The lifetime risk of diabetes for people born in the United States in 2000 is:

For all Americans: 1 of 3
For African American and Hispanic males: 2 of 5
For African American and Hispanic females: 1 of 2

Additionally, CDC estimates that as many as 1 in 3 U.S. adults could have diabetes by 2050 if current trends continue. One in 9 U.S. adults has diabetes now.

Learn More About Prediabetes and Diabetes

People with prediabetes are at higher risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and eye disease. Almost everyone who develops type 2 diabetes has prediabetes first.

People with prediabetes have blood glucose (blood sugar) levels that are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. People with prediabetes are more likely to develop diabetes within 10 years and they are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn't make enough insulin or can't use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugar to build up in your blood.

Diabetes can cause serious health complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and the loss of feet or legs. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.

Ways You Can Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

Even if you have prediabetes, you can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes by changing some habits, studies have shown. You can do it by losing 5 to 7 percent of your body weight if you are overweight – that's just 10 to 14 pounds for a 200-pound person.
Two keys to success:

Get a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking, dancing or gardening, every week.
Eat a variety of foods that are low in fat, and reduce the number of calories you eat per day.

If you have prediabetes, you also can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by participating in a lifestyle intervention program that offers advice on healthy eating, physical activity and coping skills in a structured group setting. The National Diabetes Prevention Program, managed by CDC, is working with community-based organizations and third-party payers to bring evidence-based lifestyle intervention programs to communities across America. CDC's inaugural partners are the Y and UnitedHealth Group. As of early 2011, the Y is offering programs in more than 20 sites, with plans for more locations later in the year.

Diabetes Information and Resources

CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation offers a range of information on diabetes, including details on prevention; diabetes control and maintenance; risk factors; complications; tips for a healthy lifestyle; and other diabetes related information. In addition, the division offers data and trend information on diabetes (and relating issues) for the nation and all 50 states including county-level data.
The National Diabetes Education Program, a joint program of CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), offers many resources to help prevent type 2 diabetes (Small Steps. Big Rewards. Your Game Plan to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

) and to control diabetes (4 Steps to Control Your Diabetes. For Life

). These include brochures, tip sheets, provider kits, public service announcements, and more for people with diabetes, people at risk, family members, work sites and health professionals.