Originally published February 12 2006
Ohio sees significant rise in diabetic population
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Jay Carey, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health, speaks to the media about the growth of diabetes in the state, where the diabetic population has doubled over the past decade.
Being overweight and diabetic has gone hand in hand for Ashlee Townsend.
She was underweight as a young child, but by the age of 8 she weighed about 140 pounds, her mother, Deena Townsend, said.
That was when her diabetes was diagnosed.
"I was in school," said Ashlee Townsend, 18, of Sedalia in Madison County.
Townsend is one of about a million people in Ohio with diabetes, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
"From 1994 to 2003, the number of people with diabetes in Ohio has almost doubled," said Jay Carey, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health.
In central Ohio, an estimated 184,000 people have diabetes, up 8.25 percent in the past two years, according to the Central Ohio Diabetes As- sociation.
Townsend started off taking medication, but after about four years, switched to insulin injections.
"Overall, we are averaging about 150 new cases a year just in our center," said Wynola Wayne, a diabetes nurse clinician at Children's.
Townsend, like most with the disease, has Type 2 diabetes.
Over the years, eating habits have changed for the worse.
People are sucking down larger servings, leading to weight gain for inactive people.
Not as common, Type 1 diabetes is primarily believed to be related to genetics and requires people to receive insulin through injections or an insulin pump.
Some Type 2 diabetics can manage the disease through exercise and diet alone, Cataland said.
Grimm began giving his own insulin shots when he was 10, learned to prick his finger for blood-sugar tests and, for about five years, has been using an insulin pump, which serves as sort of an artificial pancreas, to deliver insulin to his body.
About three years after Grimm's diagnosis, his younger brother, Kyle, learned he had diabetes.
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