The numbers come alongside new region-by-region obesity rates released Nov. 19. But unlike the obesity statistics, no Alaska boroughs or Census areas have diabetes rates comparable to the soaring prevalence in some areas of the Southeastern U.S.
Anchorage has one of the highest diabetes rates -- 7.7 percent -- despite ranking relatively low for obesity, the CDC says. The lowest rates in Alaska, 5.8 percent, are in the Denali and Fairbanks North Star boroughs.
Alaska Natives are particularly at high risk for diabetes in combination with obesity, said Dr. Gary Ferguson, director of wellness and prevention for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
"Unless of course you live in the Norton Sound region and other regions where there's still a lot of traditional food consumption and being obese isn't necessarily indicative of whether you get diabetes or not," he said.
A study of Norton Sound families found that people who regularly ate seal oil and salmon were less likely to have the disease, he said. "In fact, if you ate it almost daily, you basically wouldn't get diabetes.
Years ago Alaska Native health officials declared war on soda. But today sugary drinks remain part of the problem in villages where some households lack running water but cola and energy drinks are easy to come by.
"If you go to a lot of stores in small communities there's an aisle devoted to sugar-sweetened beverages -- Rockstar and Red Bull and these energy drinks," Ferguson said.
Health officials don't yet know what that's doing to Alaska youth, he said.
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