• What you should know - about diabetes

• More than 16 million Americans have diabetes
• Half of these people are undiagnosed
• More than 115,000 Nebraskans have diabetes
• People often have only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all
• Uncontrolled diabetes is the
  - Seventh leading cause of death
  - Leading cause of blindness
  - Leading cause of kidney failure
  - Leading cause of amputations

What you should do

The American Diabetes Association recommends good blood glucose (blood sugar) control.

You can achieve this by following a treatment plan that results in a daily blood glucose average of 150 or lower, and a hemoglobin A1C (three-month average) of 7 percent.

You can reduce your risk of blindness, kidney failure and nerve damage by 50 percent to 75 with near-normal blood glucose control.