The number of African-Americans with diabetes has grown by more than 160% since 1980

Paul H Johnson:

Doctors say that African-Americans are nearly twice as likely as whites to develop type 2 diabetes. And when they do develop the disease, they are much more likely to suffer its most dangerous complications — strokes, heart attacks and amputations. Native Americans are the only ethnic group with a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

The numbers are staggering. But doctors are equally concerned that even when people are diagnosed with the more common form of the disease, they don’t take their treatment seriously until it is too late.

“That’s really the tragedy, the amputations that could have been prevented with early aggressive treatment,” said Dr. Leroy Strom, an endocrinologist at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey.

Puckett's Death Brings Attention to Stroke Risk Among African Americans