Diabetes tips and facts for young people.

You must have heard people talk about diabetes (dai-a-bee-teez), or heard of it on TV before. It is a very common disease and it is even more common in the past few decades as many more people have been diagnosed.

Here are a few figures for you:
UK: Approximately 2.8 million people live with diabetes.
An estimated 1million more may be living with it undiagnosed in the UK (NHS, UK)
USA: Approximately 25.8 million children and adults—8.3% of the population have diabetes.
An estimated 7 million more may be living with it undiagnosed.
In the USA, diabetes contributed to a total of 231,404 deaths in 2007. (ADA, USA)

Given these rough estimates, it is no doubt that diabetes is an important disease to learn about and to ensure that you are well aware of what to look out for and how to cope if you are diagnosed of it.

The proper medical name is Diabetes Mellitus (DM). A diabetic is a person suffering from diabetes. It is not a contagious disease. You cannot get it by blood transfusion or unprotected sexual activity (even though there are many serious diseases one can get from unprotected sexual activity)

Now, let us learn what Diabetes is.