Save your life - heed the American Diabetes Alert

illustration courtesy of the American Diabetes Association

It's difficult to keep track of all the "wellness" days crowding the calendar, but today is one to which you simply must pay attention: today (March 24) is Diabetes Alert Day.

What makes this day more deserving than others? The answer is simple: Diabetes is a killer disease that is too often ignored because it doesn't strike as suddenly as a heart attack or the shock of a cancer diagnosis. If it did, though, we might all be better off.

This sounds harsh, but the fact is that, less than 100 years ago, diabetes indeed was a dreaded disease. Those who developed it quickly became emaciated, fell into a coma and died. This was because their bodies lacked insulin, the important hormone that is secreted by our pancreas, and enables our body to convert food into energy. In 1921, Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin and turned it into a successful treatment, transforming diabetes from an acute killer into a manageable, chronic disease. But there remains no cure.

And that word "manageable" is a tragic misnomer. Diabetes still kills; it just does so much more slowly, often, sadly, limb by limb. Diabetes is a leading cause of heart disease, kidney disease, blindness, amputation, and the list goes on.

One of the reason diabetes is so damaging is that it has a head start -- the disease occurs an average of seven years before its diagnosed. But another way, it's estimated that nearly one-quarter of the 23.6 million adults and children in the U.S. don't know they have it.

This is why today's "Alert" is so important. Click here to take the American Diabetes Association's Diabetes Risk Assessment.