About 29.1 million Americans—nearly 10% of the U.S. population—now has type 2 diabetes, according to a new report. Of those Americans with the illness, 27.8% of them are undiagnosed, according to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s 2014 National Diabetes Statistics Report released Tuesday. The report uses data collected between 2009-2012, as well as national surveys.

When it comes to chronic diseases, I don't usually state statistics. However, this is truly sad because with proper diet and lifestyle, this disease is reversible - up to 90% of people with type 2 diabetes can reverse it! 

I just received  press release about diabetes. It's very sad. The reason that it's so sad is because type 2 diabetes is almost always a preventable disease. From the press release:

If you have diabetes, these are some of the complications:

• heart disease
• stroke
• kidney disease
  
• blindness
  
• amputation

Now consider this:

• 24 million children and adults in the United States live with diabetes
• 57 million Americans are at risk for type 2 diabetes
• 1 out of every 3 children born today will face a future with diabetes if current trends continue

This disease is avoidable. It is a known fact that the American diet is a major contributor to type 2 diabetes.

If you have it, I certainly recommend that you read Dr. Neal Barnard's book about reversing diabetes.

Read Jack Lalane's quote below. It says it all.

The reason that this is so sad: Type 2 diabetes is a disease that can be avoided by most people who have it...with proper diet.

Now read this story from the Los Angeles Times.

For diabetes drug Avandia, bad news continues

The diabetes drug Avandia, once the world's top-selling diabetes medication, took two more hits Monday with one new study linking it to an increased risk of heart attacks and a separate study linking it to an increased risk of heart failure and stroke. The research comes only weeks before an upcoming federal hearing to reconsider its fate.

The drug, also known by its generic name, rosiglitazone, was approved in 1999 to help people with Type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar. At the time, it was considered a safer alternative than existing diabetes drugs used instead of insulin. Soon after approval, however, the drug was linked to an increased risk of heart failure and bone fractures; worries about the drug's safety increased in 2007 when a meta-analysis — a pooling of previous studies — concluded that the drug increased the risk of heart attack.