According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diabetes in America is on the rise; 24 million people have diabetes which includes 6 million people who don’t know they have the disease, while at least 57 million are prediabetic.  

These figures show that the number of diabetics has surged by more than 3 million in two years, says Ann Albright, PhD, RD, and director of the CDC’s division of diabetes translation.

In a statement, Albright said, “It is concerning to know that we have more people developing diabetes, and these data are a reminder of the importance of increasing awareness of the condition.”

World Health Organization calls the disease an epidemic and diabetes is the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S. often leading to heart disease, blindness, kidney failure and amputation, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Albright said, "It's very important that people understand how serious this disease is and that this growth in this epidemic is very, very concerning, particularly those new cases. We're hopeful that these data will shine a light and remind people that we must do more in diabetes prevention and control. Diabetes is linked to obesity and sedentary living.”

America’s ageing population and the increase in population of certain ethnic groups who are more prone to the disease are some reasons feel experts for its increase.

"We want to see the numbers go down for the right reasons. We don't want to see the numbers go down because people with diabetes are dying prematurely. ... We want to see them go down because we're having fewer new cases of diabetes. Once someone's developed the disease, we obviously need to be working to help them live long and successfully with the disease,” Albright said.