Culture and Disease

Cultural and Disease

Angela Huffman

HCS/245

May 5, 2014

Cheryl MEAUX

Cultural and Disease

Diabetes is a disease of the endocrine system. This disease can affect people of any age, race, and/or ethnic background. African Americans are at a higher risk for developing diabetes and heart disease. Environmental factors may lead to the development of this disease but there could be prenatal influences, family history, and age may also lead to the development of the disease. There are methods that can help prevent this disease and there are different medications that can help keep this disease under control but health promotion and wellness strategies seem to work to help prevent African Americans from getting diabetes.

Diabetes

When the human body has a shortage of insulin or the inability to use insulin there is a possibility that the disease diabetes is present. Insulin is a hormone that allows glucose to be converted into energy and when glucose remains in the blood it can start to damage organs (CDC, 2011). There are different types of diabetes. Type 1 is normally found in children and is considered an autoimmune disease. There is no known way to prevent it but treatment usually requires insulin. Type 2 is another type of diabetes and is the most common. This type accounts for 90-95% of all diabetic cases and is preventable. African Americans are at higher risk to develop type 2 diabetes. They have a 77% greater risk than Caucasians and 18.7% of African Americans age 20 or older have been diagnosed compared to 10.2% of Caucasians (Materese, 2014). African Americans seem to be at a higher risk because of genetics, cultural norms, and diet. Type 2 can be controlled by medications, insulin, weight loss, and physical activity. Gestational diabetes happens during pregnancy and must be treated quickly to avoid complications to the fetus. Less than 5% of diagnosed cases are other types of diabetes; these other types can be from surgery, infections, pancreatic...