Consumer Reports Insights: The Myths and Facts About Diabetes

People were more knowledgeable about blood pressure and cholesterol than blood sugar, according to a survey of 1,000 adults conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center in April. That's worrisome, because high blood sugar may be an indicator of diabetes, and it rivals the other two factors in contributing to heart attacks and strokes. High blood sugar can also lead to kidney damage, blindness and other serious health complications.

According to the CR survey, women were more likely than men to say they had talked with a doctor about blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol, including what levels of those markers are considered healthy. Both sexes did poorly when asked to list risk factors, symptoms and complications related to Type 2 diabetes.

10 Diabetes Myths

MYTH {vbar} You have to be overweight to develop diabetes; thin people don't get the disease.

FACT {vbar} There's no doubt that obesity is a major contributor to Type 2 diabetes, but genetics and age can also play a role, even for skinny people.

CR recommends that people age 45 and older have their blood sugar checked every three years. Start earlier if you are overweight and experience such symptoms as fatigue, increased hunger or thirst and weight loss, or if you have at least one additional risk factor for diabetes. Those risk factors include being sedentary, being non-Caucasian and having a family history of the disease.

MYTH {vbar} You can get diabetes from eating too much sugar.

FACT {vbar} While continually munching on sweets can help trigger diabetes in someone with a predisposition, it is not a direct catalyst. (Packing on pounds, however, is a major risk factor.)

Here's how Type 2 diabetes develops: People gradually become resistant to insulin, the hormone responsible for helping convert blood sugar into energy. Diabetes emerges when the pancreas can no longer keep up with the body's increased demand for insulin.

In the less common Type 1 form of the disease, the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

MYTH {vbar} You'll know if your blood sugar is too high because you'll develop telltale symptoms.

FACT {vbar} Not necessarily. Slightly elevated blood sugar usually doesn't trigger symptoms. And even in people with moderately elevated blood sugar, the symptoms may be so mild at first that they are easily overlooked. With high blood sugar levels, some of the more common symptoms include fatigue, increased hunger or thirst, weight loss, sores that don't heal and more-frequent urination, especially at night.

MYTH {vbar} People with diabetes have to follow a special diet.