Daily HealthBeat Tip

The third who don't know

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

The fact that they have diabetes would be a surprise to a lot of people.

Researchers for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compared surveys from 1988 to 1994 with those from 1999 to 2002. They found signs of trouble � such as no change in undiagnosed cases.

CDC researcher Ed Gregg:

"About 9 percent of adults have diabetes. About 30 percent of those people who have diabetes don't know they have the condition, however." (seven seconds)

And more than a quarter of Americans have prediabetes � meaning they could develop diabetes within 10 years.

So many people need to get checked for prediabetes or diabetes.

Losing a modest amount of weight by cutting calories or being more active can reduce the risk that pre-diabetes will develop into diabetes.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August 1, 2006

The White House | USA.gov | Helping America's Youth