Diabetes is one the most prevalent diseases or conditions not only in the United States, but in many other countries around the world. One source reports that about 400 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. As for the United States, the CDC reports:

“More than 100 million U.S. adults are now living with diabetes or prediabetes, according to a new reportCdc-pdf released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report finds that as of 2015, 30.3 million Americans – 9.4 percent of the U.S. population –have diabetes. Another 84.1 million have prediabetes, a condition that if not treated often leads to type 2 diabetes within five years.”

To put that in perspective, in 2015, the population here in America was around 321 million. That means that the number of people with prediabetes made up about 26.2% of the entire population. Combined with the 9.4% that have diabetes, in 2015, about 35.6% of the entire population had diabetes or prediabetes. That’s more than 1 of every 3 people.

Diabetes, uncontrolled and even controlled, can lead to a number of secondary health problems including loss vision, kidney disease, heart disease, nerve damage, skin problems, teeth and gum problems, infections, thyroid problems sexual dysfunction and loss of toes and feet.

My mom’s older sister, my Aunt Blanche, suffered from type 2 diabetes for many years. As she aged, she developed kidney problems and eventually required dialysis. A couple years later, her kidneys shutdown and she died.

A co-worker from many years ago had diabetes and also developed kidney problems. She was one of the few that was lucky enough to undergo a kidney and pancreas transplant. It helped, but in time, her diabetes came back and that was the last I knew before she left for another job.

New research from Australia and the United Kingdom have found a diabetes drug that actually lowered the incidents of kidney failure and death by up to a third, as reported:

“Research from Australia and the UK has shown that a once-a-day blood sugar lowering drug, canagliflozin, reduced cases of kidney failure and death by a third in diabetic patients…”

“Diabetic kidney disease is caused by years of poorly controlled blood sugar damaging the blood vessels in the kidneys, and undermining its ability to clean the blood of salts, protein and other waste products that can cause damage.”

“As well as increasing the risk of death from a range of cardiovascular conditions people who develop kidney failure may require regular dialysis sessions to clean their blood.”

“To test the effects of canagliflozin the authors recruited 4,401 patients with diabetes and kidney disease across 34 countries. It randomly assigned them to receive either canaglifozin, or a placebo, on top of their regular diabetes treatment.”

“The trial was stopped early because its high success rates meant leaving some participants on a placebo was unethical…”

“Hospitalisations related to heart failure were also 39 per cent lower and heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart diseases were 20 per cent lower. There were no major side effects.”

Use of this drug could save the lives of millions of people, or at least extend their lives for a number of years. To many, canagliflozin could be a miracle drug.