Here are some facts on diabetes that i found online.

Type 2 Diabetes
What Risk Factors Increase the Chance of Developing Type 2 Diabetes?

The frequency of diabetes in black adults is influenced by the same risk factors that are associated with Type 2 diabetes in other populations. Three categories of risk factors increase the chance of developing Type 2 diabetes in African Americans. The first is genetics, which includes inherited traits and group ancestry. The second is medical risk factors, including impaired glucose tolerance, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, and obesity. The third is lifestyle risk factors, including physical activity.


Genetic Risk Factors
Inherited Traits
Researchers suggest that African Americans and recent African immigrants to America have inherited a "thrifty gene" from their African ancestors. Years ago, this gene enabled Africans, during "feast and famine" cycles, to use food energy more efficiently when food was scarce. Today, with fewer "feast and famine" cycles, the thrifty gene that developed for survival may instead make weight control more difficult. This genetic predisposition, along with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), often occurs together with the genetic tendency toward high blood pressure.

Group Ancestry
African-American ancestry is also an important predictor of the development of diabetes. To understand how rates of diabetes vary among African Americans, it is important to look at the historical origins of black populations in America. Genetic predisposition to diabetes is based, in part, on a person's lineage. The African-American population formed from a genetic ad-mixture across African ethnic groups and with other racial groups, primarily European and North American Caucasian.

Medical Risk Factors
Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT)
People with IGT have higher-than-normal blood glucose levels but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Some argue that IGT is actually an early stage of diabetes. African-American men and women differ in their development of IGT. As black men grow older, they develop IGT at about the same rates as white American men and women. African-American women, who have higher rates of diabetes risk factors, convert more rapidly from IGT to overt diabetes than black men and white women and men.

Hyperinsulinemia and Inssulin Resistance
Higher-than-normal levels of fasting insulin, or hyperinsulinemia, are associated with an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. It is known that hyperinsulinemia often predates diabetes by several years. One study showed a higher rate of hyperinsulinemia in African-American adolescents in comparison to white American adolescents. To date, insufficient information is available on the relationship between insulin resistance or hyperinsutinemia and the development of Type 2 diabetes in African Americans.
Obesity
Obesity is a major medical risk factor for diabetes in African Americans. The National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANESII), conducted between 1976 and 1980, showed substantially higher rates of obesity in African Americans aged 20 to 74 years of age who had diabetes, compared to those who did not have diabetes. NHANESII also showed higher rates of obesity among African-American women and men than white Americans without diabetes. (See figure 2.)
Some recent evidence shows that the degree to which obesity is a risk factor for diabetes may depend on the location of the excess weight. Truncal, or upper body obesity, is a greater risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, compared to excess weight carried below the waist. One study showed that African Americans have a greater tendency to develop upper-body obesity, which increases their risk of Type 2.
Although African Americans have higher rates of obesity, researchers do not believe that obesity alone accounts for their higher prevalence of diabetes. Even when compared to white Americans with the same levels of obesity, age, and socioeconomic status, African Americans still have higher rates of diabetes. Other factors, yet to be understood, appear to be at work.

Lifestyle Risk Factors
Physical Activity
Physical activity is a strong protective factor against Type 2 diabetes. Researchers suspect that a lack of exercise is one factor contributing to the unusually high rates of diabetes in older African-American women.

How Do Diabetes Complications Affect African Americans?

Compared to white Americans, African Americans experience higher rates of three diabetes complications - blindness, kidney failure, and amputations. They also experience greater disability from these complications. Some factors that influence the frequency of these complications, such as delay in diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, denial of diabetes, abnormal blood lipids, high blood pressure, and cigarette smoking, can be influenced by proper diabetes management.

http://www.blackhealthcare.com/BHC/D...escription.asp


An investigation of eleven previous studies on white and black people suffering from diabetes showed that dark skinned fellows are more likely to develop diabetes because they have poorer control of blood sugar than their fairer skinned counterparts. The research was conducted by a team of medical experts from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and published in the yesterday Diabetes Care journal.

Julienne Kirk, PharmD and lead author of the study states that this discovery may account for higher rates of diabetes and mortality from the particular disease among black people: “This lower level of control may partly explain why blacks have disproportionately higher rates of death and complications from diabetes,� she noted in the report.

Most of the information in the 11 studies analyzed by the team and conducted between 1993 and 2005 pointed out the fact that white people present lower levels of A1C than their darker skinned counterparts. A1C, also known as hemoglobin A1C, designates a component of the red blood cells which transports oxygen to the body’s cells and carries at the same time sugar through the bloodstream. The higher the reduction in one’s A1C hemoglobin levels, the lower his chances of becoming a diabetes patient and also of having diabetes complications.

The research showed that black people presented an average of 0.65% more A1C in their red blood cells than white people. Taking into account the fact that 1% less A1C accounts for a 21% lower risk of diabetes, black people were found to have a 15% higher risk of developing diabetes throughout their lives than whites.

However, the team pointed out the fact that the A1C levels are only one of the many reasons which cause African- American population to have poorer control of their blood sugar: “Although A1C control among blacks likely contributes to their elevated risk of complications, it accounts for only a portion. We need to understand more fully why this disparity exists and to eliminate factors that may be changeable, such as improving access to care.�
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