Cases of Diabetes on the Increase

About 798,000 new cases of diabetes, a disease that damages the body’s ability to produce or respond to insulin, are diagnosed each year in the United States. Diabetes can cause complications including blindness, kidney disease, stroke and high blood pressure, and is the nation’s seventh-leading cause of death.

More numbers and facts:

* The nation’s annual tally of new diabetes cases has increased significantly since 1958, when 1.6 million Americans were diagnosed with the disease. More than 10 million cases were detected in 1997, the most recent year for which statistics are available, with an estimated 6 million going undiagnosed.

* Depression occurs three times more often in women with diabetes than among diabetic men.

* Type I usually emerges during childhood to young adulthood and is managed by insulin injections. Nine out of 10 diabetics have type II, which usually occurs after age 45, and is controlled by diet and exercise, oral medication or insulin.

Source: The Lilly Centre for Women’s Health, pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Co.