Diabetes is finally on the decline in the US

The number of new diabetes cases in the US has finally started to fall. The rate of new cases declined by a fifth between 2008 and 2014 for the first time in 25 years.

Sabrina Tavernise, a health reporter for The New York Times, says the numbers have surprised researchers.

“It's pretty remarkable," she says. "I mean, you think health behaviors are going to be the same forever and we're just going to go on forever with, you know, bad diet and little exercise. But in fact, even in some of the poorest communities in the country, there’s been some real change. You know, people out on walking trails, people really trying to get their diet in a better place."

Diabetes has been exploding since the early 1990s in such a way that researchers had gotten used to seeing increases. When they saw the disease flattening out, perhaps in large part due to lifestyle changes, they were surprised and cautious about announcing a decline. 

“Doctors are doctors, and they're always very careful,” Tavernise says. “There was a lot of soda drinking going on — particularly in hot places in the United States. You know, a lot of Coca-Cola in the summer. And that's a huge adder of calories throughout the day. So cutting down on that was a big deal. And just sort of being much more cautious about how you cook and how you eat.”

Tavernise says the devastating effects of the disease may have motivated people to change their behavior. 

“People see how devastating this disease has been in their communities,” Tavernise says. “I mean one of my people I interviewed was a woman who herself had diabetes actually. But she was a medical van driver and she said that some people had so many amputations that it looked like a shark had eaten them and it was this very, very vivid, quite terrifying actually, image.” 

This story first aired as an interview on PRI's The Takeaway, a public radio program that invites you to be part of the American conversation.