Number of people with diabetes increasing but their quality of life is improving

Diabetes is fairly common in the US, affecting 26 million Americans and more than 9.4 million people over 65. It is also the 7th leading cause of death in the US.  Worse still, the number of Americans with Type II diabetes has tripled between 1990 and 2010, from 6.5 million to 20.7 million.

But over these 20 years,  people with diabetes are experiencing fewer complications, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control. People with diabetes have substantially fewer strokes, heart attacks, end-stage kidney failures and lower extremity amputations today than they did just a few decades ago.  The researchers attribute the reduction in the number of diabetes-related complications to a rise in both awareness of these complications and the availability of health care services.