If you are recently diagnosed with diabetes, you may feel scared, confused and lonely. You may wonder how your quality of life will be affected, but perhaps you are also worried about your life expectancy.
Diabetes has historically lowered expectations of people about life. It can be a horrifying truth to swallow for someone with a state.
This article explores how it can help prevent diabetes complications, including type 1 and type 2 diabetes, life expectancy and the myths and truth about diabetes, and early death.
What is a typical life expectancy?
In short, there is no “typical” life expectancy. Life expectancy depends on many factors including:
- year of birth
- sex
- Family and health history
- Genetics
- Home Environment
- diet
- And even social determinants of health, such as postal codes at birth.
These and other factors allow you to determine how long you will live. But that’s not the whole story!
There are many other factors that determine how long someone will live, and there is no way to predict it: a natural disaster, sudden illness, or accident can significantly shorten someone’s life.
In the US, the average life expectancy for adults was 78.86 years in 2019, about five years less than their fellow countries.
Note: The average life expectancy in the US has dropped significantly in 2021 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Why can diabetes affect life expectancy?
Unfortunately, diabetes touches almost every part of your body. It affects your vision, heart, kidneys, brain, nerves and blood vessels.
If diabetes is not well controlled, nerve and vascular damage can lead to the development of comorbidities such as heart disease, kidney disease, neuropathy, retinal disorders, stroke, amputation, and even blindness.
This is because excessive glucose in the bloodstream is extremely dangerous, and the longer you suffer from diabetes, the more likely you will suffer from diabetic complications caused by persistent or persistent hyperglycemia.
Other short-term complications can also reduce life expectancy, such as diabetes coma due to severe hypoglycemia and diabetic ketosidosis caused by extreme hyperglycemia. Both of these conditions are fatal.
However, this does not have to be an unforeseen situation. A well-controlled diabetes does not necessarily lead to complications or comorbidities of diabetes, and in some cases it does not affect people’s life expectancy at all.
How much does diabetes lower your average life expectancy?
The simple answer is that it doesn’t have to affect life expectancy at all.
The longer answer is more subtle, and with diabetes being very difficult to control and no treatment, it seems natural that almost constant hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia make some decisions on average life expectancy.
In a groundbreaking 2010 study of UK diabetes, scientists found that the average life expectancy for type 2 diabetes patients is reduced by 10 years, while the average life expectancy for type 1 diabetes patients is reduced by nearly 20 years compared to those without either condition.
Of course, this sent a shockwave through the diabetic community. In another study published by the University of Pittsburgh in 2012, the researchers found that people with type 1 diabetes diagnosed between 1965 and 1980 had a life expectancy of about 69 years (longitudinal study over 30 years).
At the time of the study, it was only nine years shorter than the overall average life expectancy.
A cohort of people with diabetes diagnosed between 1965 and 1980 had a lifespan of about 15 years longer than those diagnosed with diabetes between 1950 and 1965.
This study shows that improvements in insulin, drug therapy and diabetes techniques are actively improving people’s life expectancy over time.
Several other studies have shown that life expectancy for people living with diabetes is reduced, but the years are different.
A 2001 study found that type 1 diabetes patients were diagnosed under the age of 30 and spent an average of 59.7 years if insulin treatment was started within 12 months of diagnosis.
A 1999 study from Denmark showed an increase in life expectancy of approximately 15 years over 50 years, following a type 1 diabetes cohort of patients.
And it was in 1975 that life expectancy was particularly studied among people with type 1 diabetes in the United States, where people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before the age of 15 had a life expectancy of about 27 years of age than people without diabetes.
However, this was the 1970s, and diabetes management and care had changed almost completely in almost 50 years since the study was conducted.
More recent data from a 2003 study on National Health Interview Survey Data from 1984 to 2000 shows that US children diagnosed with diabetes at age 10 lose an average of 19 years.
In a study outside of Canada, the average life expectancy among diabetics was 13 years lower than those without diabetes in Ontario (including both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in the data).
More research is needed on the life expectancy of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but one thing is certainly true. The better your diabetes management, the longer your life expectancy.
Average life expectancy for well-managed diabetic patients
However, I want to make it clear that I’m simply diagnosed with diabetes. Does not automatically lower your average lifespan!
Many research studies have no control over food, sleep, stress management, family history, and even terrible accidents, leading to fatal highs and hypoglycemia that can change the outcome.
Furthermore, many statistics are based on average, and often combine all types of diabetes into one dataset (type 1, type 2, pregnancy, ladha, modi, etc.).
With a well-controlled diabetes, your blood sugar level and HBA1c are well within a healthy range (and this can only be determined between you and your doctor), don’t worry about shortening your life expectancy.
You are not a statistic! People with proper management of diabetes are known to expect normal lives and live a complete and complete life.
Shortened lifespan is a direct result of long-term hyperglycemia (sometimes acute hypoglycemia episodes) and diabetic complications that occur in comorbidities that contribute to early death.
How can I increase my average life expectancy?
It’s not all fate and darkness, and people with diabetes live longer than ever. Most people live to have a completely normal life expectancy when they are well controlled.
Some people are grateful to have been diagnosed with diabetes. That’s because they became more aware of their health and adopted healthy habits as a result of their condition.
Here’s what you can do to increase your life expectancy in diabetes:
Maintain tight blood glucose control and HBA1C under 7%. This is recommended by the American Diabetes Association. It not only helps prevent complications of diabetes, but also prevents premature death from these complications.
Increase the time in range (TIR). TIR is a relatively new term, but is used by people who use continuous glucose monitors (CGMs).
It’s the percentage of days when your blood sugar falls within a certain range (this is usually set by your doctor, but is usually between 70 mg/dl-180 mg/dl. The idea is that the less time you have, the less time it takes to have (and the less time you spend on either the excess or the eye system).
HBA1C is only an average of so many blood glucose and hypoglycemia levels, so time within range can be seen as a more realistic glimpse of the overall control.
Meet your doctor Endocrinologist Regularly. They can usually catch complications early on (either by checking sensitivity or retinopathy eyes, both may have little or no complications first).
Meeting your doctor regularly allows you to adjust your medication as needed and try new medications when it comes on the market. You can also check in with your mental health and get more help if you need it.
Stay physically active and healthy weight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends exercise for 30 minutes a week, five days a week, and a total of 150 minutes (or more!) per week. It is important to incorporate moderate weightlifting several times a week to strengthen bones and develop muscles.
Eat healthy and balanced diets. Limit processed foods and sugar-added foods. Eat lots of fiber, lots of natural fruits, low-carb vegetables, and lean protein. Work with a registered dietitian to develop a healthy diet plan that works for you and your lifestyle and goals.
Don’t smoke! Smoking is a major source of preventable death worldwide, and even worse for diabetics, who are already at an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Check out these free resources from the CDC on how to stop smoking.
Maintains good blood pressure and cholesterol levels. People with diabetes are more likely to suffer from high cholesterol and blood pressure, making us even more at a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, and shorter life expectancy.
Take statins if you are over 40 years old, and if you have diabetes and suffer from high cholesterol, check your blood pressure regularly at home with a wrist cuff.
Reduce alcohol intake. Studies have shown that alcohol can contribute to the development of cancer, cirrhosis, and accidental damage. Also, if you are already living with chronic diseases like diabetes, your body ages early. Limiting your alcohol intake means that if you’re not currently taking it, there’s very little reason to start.
Take all the medications prescribed!
Find a treatment plan that works for you. Some people love insulin pumps, while others prefer pens. Some people love to test manually, while others couldn’t live without a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).
The latest and greatest technology isn’t always the best, but if you’re looking to try something new, ask for it! If you don’t like something, you can always pivot and adapt. Find a treatment plan and management style that will work for you in the long run and make sure it’s something you can thrive.
Seek support from family and friendsand create a community of people who can become you, and share your thoughts and feelings. Living with diabetes is difficult, but it’s easy when the load is shared with others who understand and love you.
Conclusion
Historically, both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are known to shorten lifespans, but data is sparse and varies on a case-by-case basis.
What’s known is that people with better insulin and access to new technologies have increased the lifespan of people with diabetes more than ever before. Some people lived with diabetes for 70 years!
Knowing your lifelong risk of illness is important, but not losing hope.
There are many things you can do to extend your life expectancy, with close control of your blood sugar levels, maintaining high-range times (TIR), eating healthy diets and exercising, maintaining good blood pressure and cholesterol levels, regularly checking for smoking, not smoking, and limiting alcohol intake.
Before making any fundamental changes, talk to your doctor about your health behavior and fixing your insulin and diabetes medication.
