What is Diabetes?
Blood glucose is everyone’s primary source of energy derived from the food we eat. Diabetes is the name for a condition in which the body does not correctly process the things you eat. Most of what we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, which our bodies use as energy. When you eat and your body begins to turn food into sugars, your pancreas is supposed to release insulin. Insulin serves as the signal to open your cells to allow the glucose to enter and be used for energy. But with diabetes, this system does not work. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin, or it can’t use its own insulin as well as it should.
Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are the most common, but other forms exist as well, such as gestational diabetes which occurs during pregnancy. In the last ten years, diagnoses of people living with diabetes increased nearly 50 percent, exceeding 30 million Americans (1 in 10). Worldwide, diabetes afflicts more than 422 million people (1 in 15) and is a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, amputations, heart failure and stroke.
Diabetes and Mobility Difficulties
In the 2015 Study “Incident Diabetes and Mobility Limitations: Reducing Bias Through Risk-set Matching” diabetes was estimated to account for $176B in annual medical costs and an additional $69B in lost productivity in the United States in 2012. “Individuals who were diagnosed with diabetes during the study period accumulated more subsequent mobility limitations than were accumulated by matched controls. Among observationally similar pairs of individuals, those who developed diabetes reported an average of 24.9% more mobility limitations at study exit than those who did not.”
What is SmartScoot™?
Living with diabetes places an enormous emotional, physical and financial burden on the entire family. Sometimes a little help can go a long way. With the SmartScoot mobility scooter, tasks that were once a struggle can once again become a stress-free part of everyday life. When you want to maintain an active lifestyle, a compact, lightweight folding scooter like SmartScoot can be a crucial tool. Unlike a full-size powerchair, a compact and foldable scooter allows you to easily take it along with you in the car, on planes or even cruise ships. Lightweight scooters may be smaller than a full-size power chair, but they are still heavy-duty and boast a full weight capacity. You do not have to let a mobility difficulty repress your desire to see the world and spend time with family.
Contact us now to answer any questions you may have about the SmartScoot folding mobility scooter!
