Even with the reputation for grazing on salads and spending
long hours at the gym for Californians, new data on diabetes paint a different
picture of their health.
From 1990 to 2000, diabetes deaths soared 53%
among residents of Los Angeles County, according to health officials.
The findings, reported Thursday at a meeting of
the American College of Preventive Medicine in San Diego, were
extrapolated from a review of death certificates of Los Angeles County residents
from 1990-2000.
Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health
at the Los Angeles Department of Health Services said, “Increasing obesity is
the major factor driving the escalating rates of diabetes in Los Angeles and
across the nation.”
"We're going to see more increases in diabetes,
as well as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease."
Some racial disparities were observed. Compared
with whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders, the risk of dying from diabetes was
more than two times higher for blacks and one-and-a-half times higher for
Latinos.
To help curb diabetes and other major killers,
Dr. Fielding said, physicians need to "continue to focus on prevention" and
"work harder in partnership with their patients to get good levels of
compliance."
It's critical that doctors treating diabetics try
to minimize heart disease risk factors, such as smoking and high cholesterol, he
added.
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com.
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