What is the life expectancy for people with diabetes?

What is the life expectancy for people with diabetes?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: Does taking additional insulin correct a high blood sugar level?; Why is my blood pressure important if I have diabetes?; What are the most common causes of death for people with diabetes? and more...

The life expectancy for people with diabetes used to be significantly reduced. And, in fact, life expectancy is reduced by a lot. If you get diabetes at the age of 18, I believe your life expectancy is reduced by 16 to 17 years. If you get it when your 40, it's reduced by about 14 years. That's a lot of years. On the other hand, if you get diabetes and you take care of it your life expectancy isn't reduced at all, neither with type one or type two. You have the same life expectancy. So my mission is to be sure everybody gets good care for their diabetes, and even though what I do for a living may not be all that dramatic, what I'm doing is giving people back years and I think that's wonderful, so this is a treatable disease and life expectancy can just be the same as everybody else, but people have to get treatment.