If current trends continue, the ranks of American adults with excessive blood sugar levels would swell from 93.8 million this year (about 28 million diabetics and 66 million more with pre-diabetes) to 135 million in 2020 – and cost society $3.35 billion by decade’s end. In addition, diabetes is becoming one of the most common chronic diseases in children and adolescents. According to the American Diabetes Association, one in every four children is currently diagnosed with diabetes.

Dr Joel Zonszein believes that unless healthy lifestyle changes are made early in life, diabetes could become an epidemic of tsunami-like proportions. Montefiore has been collaborating with the Diabetes Research Center and Training Center (DRTC), focusing on diabetes education, professional training and community outreach.

American Diabetes Association Recommends Popular Diabetes Drug Metformin to Treat Pre-diabetes
Pre-diabetes, which affects an estimated 79 million Americans, has been termed "America's Largest Healthcare Epidemic.”

The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine by scientists at Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, found that diabetes can be prevented. In the DPP study, the incidence of diabetes in this high risk group is 11 percent when nothing is done. However, with lifestyle changes, it can be reduced to 4.8 percent and when metformin is used, it is reduced to 7.8 percent.
Therefore, metformin, a drug typically used to treat diabetes, is advocated, combined with lifestyle changes, to effectively prevent or delay the onset of diabetes. The condition is diagnosed when blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Recent research has shown that long-term damage to the body, affecting the heart, nerves, kidneys and eyes, may already be occurring during pre-diabetes.

Approximately 3-5 percent of pregnant women suffer from gestational diabetes, which is defined as diabetes during pregnancy. Many women don’t even know they have type 2 diabetes until they begin seeing their doctor during pregnancy.

A recent international study, Hypoglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO), indicated that higher maternal glucose levels are associated with higher rates of adverse obstetrical outcomes, which include risk of miscarriage, urinary tract infections, dental disease and poor wound healing. Pre-diabetes also can have profound long term effects on the newborn baby, by altering metabolism and increasing its risk for developing diabetes and heart disease.

However, there is hope -- pregnant women are a relatively captive audience and are often more open to education. It also gives health care professionals an opportunity to counsel the entire family since diabetes management and treatment is relatively similar for all adults.