Diabetes management has a lot to do with math and keeping track of it all can be somewhat challenging to a lot of diabetics. While the numbers can be daunting,you do not have to be a rocket scientist or Einstein esk to make the numbers work for you though.

Sleeping through that college algebra class and your rationale that it would never have real life implications, is not the only reason why you are not an accountant, it could also be the reason why you cannot get your blood sugars under control.

A new study by the Vanderbilt University medical center researchers found that patients with the strongest diabetes related numeracy scores also had better results on their A1c test.

The researchers administered the diabetes related numeracy test to 383 adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes to gauge their ability to interpret nutritional labels, count calories and carbohydrates and keep track of medication doses

“Diabetes management requires basic skills in addition, subtraction and multiplication of numbers to be able to know exactly what portion sizes you require, count carbs and food labels at a very basic mathematical level” said Dr. Chandra Osborn PhD.,M.P.H., Lead author of the paper and an associate professor of medicine in the center for health services research and prevention control core of the diabetes research and training center (DRTC)

The study according to them might also explain why there is some racial differences in diabetes control.

African Americans have been found to have a tougher time with blood sugar control and higher rates of diabetes complications such as heart disease and kidney failure than their white counterparts and these researchers believe that this might be a numeracy issue as much as it is a racial issue.

For the longest time diabetes was a race disease until the Baltimore study put that notion to rest or so I thought. They made it a class issue, then another study made it a poor issue, environmental issue and everything that goes with it.

I am finally learning why race is such a sensitive subject in this country as I face my disease.

The facts cannot be argued with, that’s a truth and the fact is that there is a higher prevalence of diabetes for African Americans and Hispanics than whites. But you cannot take a study of a mere 400 people vs 24 million, that is in fact .00001% of the cross-sectional diabetic population and then come up with a conclusion that is supposed to represent that conclusion.

To me it is just absurd but that is the society we live in and it makes me sound more and more like an angry black man which I am not. Until someone comes up with an answer to this question, or does a h a bigger more definitive study then I will hold my tongue on this opinion not because I don’t like the conclusion of the study. Yes I do believe diabetes management is a numbers game but I do not believe it has anything to do with diabetes management being a racial issue.