(WASHINGTON) -- Diabetes is skyrocketing in the U.S., according
to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The CDC says 18 states saw at least a doubling of
diabetes diagnoses between 1995 and 2010 -- and at least a 50
percent increase in 42 states. The largest increase in patients
with diabetes was reported in the South. The states with the
largest increases were Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, and
Washington, according to findings published in the CDC’s
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “Regionally, we saw the
largest increase in diagnosed diabetes prevalence in the South,
followed by the West, Midwest, and Northeast,” said Linda Geiss,
with the CDC. “This is truly an epidemic,” said ABC News senior
medical contributor Dr. Jennifer Ashton. “The CDC estimates that
by the year 2050, as many as one in every three American adults
will have diabetes,” Ashton said, “and largely we're talking
about type two diabetes, which is directly linked to obesity.”
“We know that obesity i