Yet, half of all Americans with diabetes do not know they have it. Those who know they have diabetes spend a good part of their day managing it. The estimated 800,000 people with juvenile, or Type I insulin-dependent diabetes, must monitor their blood glucose level up to eight times a day and inject themselves as many as four to six times a day. This means spending hours per day for diabetes treatment. I diabetes will spend close to 60,000 hours applying self-treatment.
Diabetes alone is one of the leading causes of death by disease.
I know that the life expectancy of people with diabetes averages 20 years less than that of people without diabetes. The death rate among infants born to mothers with diabetes is two to three times as high as for women without diabetes. These statistics indicate that we must find a cure for diabetes very soon. The future of millions of Americans is at stake in our struggle with diabetes. As a society, we cannot sacrifice the potential contribution of a single person.