North Carolina doctor says 250,000 residents have diabetes without knowing it

About 11 million people in the United States may have diabetes without knowing it, according to the CDC.

The agency estimates roughly 40 million people nationwide live with the disease. Diabetes ranks as the seventh leading cause of death in the country and the top cause of kidney disease. It can lead to coronary artery disease, heart attacks, nerve damage, and amputations. The American Diabetes Association lists Type 2 diabetes as the leading cause of amputation in the United States.

Dr. Adam Spitz, an endocrinologist at Novant Health, said North Carolina sits in a region often called the diabetes belt, where rates run higher. He said about 1 million people in the state have diabetes and another 250,000 have it without a diagnosis. He put it this way: "That is very scary because they can start to develop all the complications without even knowing it." Spitz said an estimated 3 million people in North Carolina have prediabetes, a condition he described as a fork in the road between getting diabetes or preventing it. He also said people in rural or under-served communities often lack access to health care and education on healthy lifestyles.

Andrew Tucker was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes about 15 years ago, when he was 35. At the time he weighed around 250 pounds, was in graduate school, worked long hours, and ate what he called a diet full of junk food. He changed his eating habits, started exercising, and dropped more than 30 pounds, but the diabetes stayed. "What I learned, it was also hereditary," Tucker said. "My father had it, grandfather had diabetes." He bikes, stays active, and wears a continuous glucose monitor that tracks his blood sugar in real time. In a video he recorded of a recent doctor's visit, his physician said: "Your average sugar is 129, which is also improved from our last time."

Common signs of undiagnosed diabetes include excessive thirst, extreme fatigue, and frequent urination. Doctors advise people with those symptoms to consult a physician for testing.