Paper Topic:

Native Americans and Diabetes

The Diabetes Epidemic Amongst Native Americans

Type 2 Diabetes is a significant , pressing and continually worsening public health problem . General research has drawn close connections between this public health problem and certain gender , racial and cultural factors . Additionally , research has recognized that diabetes is today one of the fastest growing public health problems due to the negative health behaviors which have become increasingly culturally prevalent in America . The `junk food ' culture that inclines Americans to consume fatty foods with limited nutritional value and to engage relatively sedentary lifestyles is creating a

culture of heart-disease obesity and diabetes . This is a problem which inordinately impacts the Native American and Native Alaskan populations of the United States which today are struggling to stem the fast rising tide of diabetic Native American children , adolescents and adults

All attendant research on the subject pinpoints the heightened vulnerability of this group with unequivocal certainty . To this end Type 2 diabetes has been recognized as a significant public health problem in American Indian communities for almost 40 years . HYPERLINK "http /www .ajph .org /cgi /content /full /92 /9 /1485 R1 " 1 , HYPERLINK "http /www .ajph .org /cgi /content /full /92 /9 /1485 R2 " 2 The Pima Indians in Arizona have the highest recorded prevalence of diabetes in the world . HYPERLINK "http /www .ajph .org /cgi /content /full /92 /9 /1485 R3 " 3 Compared with other US populations , American Indians and Alaska Natives have been disproportionately affected with diabetes since the early 1960s , HYPERLINK "http /www .ajph .org /cgi /content /full /92 /9 /1485 R1 " 1 and its increasing prevalence in this population has been documented since 1983 . HYPERLINK "http /www .ajph .org /cgi /content /full /92 /9 /1485 R2 " 2 , HYPERLINK "http /www .ajph .org /cgi /content /full /92 /9 /1485 R4 " 4 (Acton et al 1485 ) Observations have consistently drawn a connection between Native American ethnicity and a high level of vulnerability to the conditions of diabetes . Particularly , Type 2 Diabetes , which has traditionally been known as an acquired rather than inborn form of Diabetes and which has therefore most commonly been found to be present in adults , is appearing more commonly in adolescents of all ethnicities . However consistent with the above findings , this impact has also been disproportionately afflictive of Native American ethnicities

Statistics have tended to reinforce a series of consistent indicators as to the crisis which diabetes represents most especially to Native American populations , who the American Diabetes Association notes are 2 .2 times as likely as non-Hispanic Whites to develop Diabetes Type 2 are 3 times as likely to suffer fatality due to these conditions and are markedly more reflective of the sharp increase in reported and suspected cases of Type 2 in adolescents and young adults (ADA , 1 ) The reason for this has been attributed to a significant upswing in the proportion of Native Americans or Native Alaskans who suffer from obesity or from other metabolic diss . Though this does not in and of itself set it apart from other...

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