Title: Health Disparities that Affect the African American Community | Ultius
Headings: Health Disparities that Affect the African American Community
Essay Writing Samples
Health Disparities that Affect the African American Community
African-American community health disparities
African-Americans and Heart disease
African-Americans and diabetes
Conclusion
References
Tags
Author

Content: According to the CDC (2013), diabetes is a disease in which
“blood glucose levels are above normal due to the fact that the body does not make enough insulin to help glucose get into the cells in the human body.” As a result, a person can experience a variety of complications from the disease. These complications include
heart disease
blindness, kidney failure
lower-extremity amputations (CDC, 2013). However, the health problems associated with diabetes can be controlled depending on the type of diabetes. Members of the African American community can have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is heredity, and the condition is caused by an autoimmune disease that attacks the pancreas, which makes insulin in the human body. In contrast, Type 2 diabetes is commonly caused by obesity, which is the number one risk factor for acquiring this health disparity. The American Heart Association (2013) found that
“African Americans are disproportionately affected by obesity, as 63 percent of black men and 77 percent of black women are overweight. Unfortunately, if an African American does not develop diabetes from an autoimmune disease or from being overweight, the disease may be caused by a genetic mutation of the R145C variant of the ApoE gene, which is also responsible for causing heart disease” (American Heart Association, 2013). As a result, these risk factors have made diabetes a highly prevalent disease in the African American community.