Diabetes is a serious disease with serious complications. More than 470,000 Georgia citizens had diabetes in 2003--these are our family, friends, and neighbors. The Centers for Disease Contol and Prevention in Atlanta estimates one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes as adults if current trends continue.

In October, 2005 the CDC stated that 20.8 million Americans were affected by diabetes. The American Diabetes Association now says that someone is diagnosed with diabetes every 21 seconds. This means that over 4,000 people are diagnosed every day, over 120,000 are diagnosed every month, and almost 1.5 million people are diagnosed every year. If this has been true since October, 2005 that would mean there would be nearly 23 million Americans affected by diabetes as of this writing (April, 2007). Looking ahead, there would be nearly 25 million people affected by diabetes by August of 2008, and over 30 million by December of 2011. And, that doesn't account for an increase in the prevalence of the disease over that six year period...

Local statistics show that diabetes is even more prevalent in our area, with nearly ten percent of the population affected by the disease. And, despite popular belief, it's not just an adult disease. One or more out of every 500 children suffer from diabetes, too. And, Type 2 diabetes is becoming much more prevalent in children in our country. This increase is primarily due to the inactivity of today's youth, combined with the poor nutrition habits of Americans.

The CDC also states that nearly one-third of those affected aren't even aware that they have the disease. This fact just shows that it is important to raise awareness of the disease, and to increase the regular testing for diabetes for everyone, especially those with one or more risk factors.

People with diabetes suffer from heart attack and stroke more than twice as often as others. Twenty-one percent of Americans with diabetes have kidney damage and diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure. Diabetes accounts for 8% of legal blindness, which makes it the leading cause of new cases of blindness in American adults 20-74 years of age. Almost two-thirds of nontraumatic lower-limb amputations in the United States occur among people with diabetes.

If the disease is controlled well, the risk for complications is greatly reduced. This local support group will aid in educating people on how to try to avoid these complications.

Three years ago, one out of every 10 health care dollars, or approximately 132 billion dollars, was spent on the care or treatment of a patient with diabetes. The support group will be free, and can even help to reduce some of these costs.