Diabetes a growing threat to Native American population

Which ethnic group is at the greatest risk for developing diabetes? If you answered Native American Indians, you are correct.

Over the past fifteen years, the number of cases of diabetes in American Indian and Alaskan Native teens aged 15 to 19 has risen by 128 percent. On top of that, the disease increased by 77 percent in American Indians and Alaskan Natives who were younger than fifteen during the same time frames. As for adults -- the current rate of diabetes in this population is at 60 percent. Feel free to read that again. That's a rise by 128 percent in 15 to 19-year-olds, 77 percent in kids under 15, and a current rate of 60 percent of adults living with diabetes. In a word: Staggering. In two words: Freakin' Staggering. In seventeen words: So freakin' staggering that I had to make sure that the data was correct -- and it was.

For more information on the explosive growth of diabetes in the Native American population, follow this link: http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/americanindian/