The health of Maryland’s African-American, Native American, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities is in a state of emergency. The Diabetes Center at Mercy is here to help you and your family turn the tide against late diagnosis and more serious complications.

African American Marylanders are more than 1.6 times as likely to have diabetes than their Caucasion peers.

African Americans make up about 25% of the population of Maryland, women about half of that or 13%, but African American women have 44% of all lower extremity amputations in the state. This is 28% higher than the nationwide rate.

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is 2 times higher in Latinos than non-Latinos Caucasians.

Prevalence of type 2 diabetes among Native Americans in the United States is 12.2% for those over 19 years of age.

Even more distressing is the fact that one-third of all those afflicted with the disease don’t know it. The Diabetes Center at Mercy is committed to serving the African American, Latino, Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities with aggressive community education and state-of-the-art treatment resources.

DID YOU KNOW?

• 25% of African-Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 have diabetes.
• One Native American tribe in Arizona has the highest rate of diabetes in the world. About 50% of the adults between the ages of 30 and 64 have diabetes.
• Approximately 24% of Mexican Americans in the US and 26% of Puerto Ricans between the ages of 45-74 have diabetes.
• You can have diabetes even if you feel fine.
• If you "have sugar", you have diabetes.
• Diabetes has no cure, but is manageable if you take control early.

Left unchecked, diabetes can result in lower-limb amputations, heart attack and stroke as well as blindness and kidney failure. African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans experience all of these complications at much higher rates than Caucasians.

Diabetes falls into two categories: Type 1, which begins during childhood, and Type 2, the more common form of the disease, which usually strikes after age 45. In the United States, Type 2 diabetes occurs more than twice as often in African-American women than in Caucasian women. It is estimated that as much as 48% of this excess risk can be avoided through normal weight maintenance by regular exercise and healthy diet.

The earlier the disease is detected, the more likely you are to successfully manage the disease and lead a normal, healthy life. There are many warning signs that you may have diabetes. The Diabetes Center at Mercy urges you to get tested for diabetes if…

• You are overweight
• You don’t exercise regularly
• You have a family history of diabetes
• You have high blood pressure
• You are a woman who has given birth to a baby weighing more than 9 pounds
• You feel overly tired
• You are always thirsty
• You are losing weight without trying
• You urinate overly frequently
• You are age 45 or older