Understanding Diabetes

By Mark Loehrke
Appears in the November 2025 issue.

What you may not know about this growing health concern

Diabetes is a very familiar concern in the United States. Given its broad and growing reach, in fact, chances are just about everyone knows someone living with a form of this disease.

But knowing the patients doesn’t always translate into actually knowing diabetes. That’s the whole idea behind American Diabetes Month, the American Diabetes Association’s annual November push for education, awareness, and advocacy. Diabetes is a group of chronic diseases diagnosed when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot properly use the insulin it produces (insulin is a hormone that regulates blood glucose.) Type 1 diabetes is defined by deficient insulin production, requiring a daily dose of insulin; type 2 diabetes affects how the body uses glucose for energy, stopping the body from using insulin properly.

Tara Evers, a certified diabetes care and education specialist at Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora, offers a few facts about diabetes, which directly affects more than 10 percent of the U.S. population.

Diabetes is on the rise
The growth of the disease in the United States is correlated with rising obesity rates, unhealthy diets, and a lack of physical exercise.

Taking a toll
Among its many physical impacts, Evers says diabetes can lead to other serious health issues such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, eye disease, stroke, and neuropathy, to name just a few. “Diabetes can have a lot of hidden effects on the body, which is why even though you can’t feel it, you should try to control it,” she explains.

Knowing the risk factors is key
While family medical history figures into many instances of type 1 diabetes, the more preventable type 2 variation is often brought on by behaviors and factors that can be managed, including smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Promising advances in care and prevention
Continuous glucose sensors can provide current and trending reports every one to five minutes, allowing patients to better monitor their sugar levels in real time. In addition, insulin pumps integrated with these sensors can provide continual insulin adjustment based on their readings.

Prevention is possible
Evers says there are a variety of common-sense things people can do to help stave off the threat of diabetes. These include maintaining a diet rich in vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats—with limited carbohydrates. Also, engaging in at least 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise and two days of resistance exercises every week.

For more information about American Diabetes Month, visit diabetes.org/adm.

Fast Facts

Diabetes in the Land of Lincoln

• About 1.3 million adults in Illinois—around 12.5 percent of the population—have diabetes; of these, roughly 341,000 don’t know they have the disease.

• Diabetes is the seventh-leading cause of death in Illinois, which mirrors its ranking in national statistics.

• An estimated 3.6 million Illinois residents have prediabetes, a condition characterized by blood sugar levels that are higher than normal but not high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

Source: Illinois Department of Public Health

Photo: iStock