Battling Diabetes

Statistics are helpful.

Check out these from the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse:

Prevalence of Diagnosed and Undiagnosed Diabetes in the United States, All Ages, 2007

Total: 23.6 million people—7.8 percent of the population—have diabetes.

Diagnosed: 17.9 million people

Undiagnosed: 5.7 million people

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Prevalence of Diagnosed and Undiagnosed Diabetes among People Aged 20 Years or Older, United States, 2007

Age 20 years or older: 23.5 million, or 10.7 percent, of all people in this age group have diabetes.

Age 60 years or older: 12.2 million, or 23.1 percent, of all people in this age group have diabetes.

Men: 12.0 million, or 11.2 percent, of all men aged 20 years or older have diabetes.

Women: 11.5 million, or 10.2 percent, of all women aged 20 years or older have diabetes.

Non-Hispanic whites: 14.9 million, or 9.8 percent, of all non-Hispanic whites aged 20 years or older have diabetes.

Non-Hispanic blacks: 3.7 million, or 14.7 percent, of all non-Hispanic blacks aged 20 years or older have diabetes.

But how does diabetes affect those millions of people who live with it..day after day?

We have shared about our friends over at TuDiabetes here at Battling Diabetes in our post The Diabetic ‘Hood

TuDiabetes has an ongoing Diabetes Awareness Project that began in 2007.

It is a collection of photographs of hands with words or a word that share how people feel about their diabetes.

During September they will be holding the Word in Your Hand contest–part of their Diabetes Awareness Project.

And they are giving away great prizes.

From TuDiabetes:

1) Take up to 3 photos of your hand with a word written on it, to describe how you feel about diabetes. Be as creative and original as possible, thinking of the emotion and the message you are capturing.

2) Add this member as your friend by clicking on the “Add as friend” link on the left.

3) Submit your photo(s) on this page’s comment wall
PRIZES!!
Each week, the four (4) best submissions each week will each receive one (1) OneTouch® UltraMini™ meter and two (2) boxes of one hundred (100) count test strips.

The prizes have been furnished by LifeScan, Inc. but LifeScan, Inc. is not directly involved with the selection of winners or administration of the contest.

The deadlines for the four rounds of the contest will be:
Week 1 September 7, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. PT
Week 2 September 14, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. PT
Week 3 September 21, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. PT
Week 4 September 30, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. PT

And kudos to SugarStats.com for sharing this neat YouTube video on the topic.

So get out your ink, pens, or henna and tell the world how you feel about diabetes.