This is how bad diabetes is in each NJ county

Diabetes is a horrible disease that is the 8th leading cause of death in the United States. It can cause kidney failure, blindness, amputation and a number of other terrible things. Someone once said to me, "Diabetes kills you one piece at a time."

I'm the less common and even more serious kind of diabetic, a Type 1. I have to have insulin or I'll die. Only 5% of diabetics are this type. The rest are Type 2, still very serious but more affected by lifestyle.

Either type can be greatly affected by things like where you live, your economic status, your access to healthy food options, etc..

Stacker.com did some research and found just how good or bad each county in New Jersey is regarding diabetes and ranked them from best to worst. Rankings were done based on percentage of adult population with the disease and where there were ties they then used a quality of life index to make the ranking.

Now if you have this disease like I do it’s not much consolation to know you live in a county where fewer people are stricken. But it’s interesting to see where your county falls. So starting with best …

#21. Morris County
- Estimated percentage of adults with diabetes: 7% (3 points less than state percentage)

#20. Hunterdon County
- Estimated percentage of adults with diabetes: 7% (3 points less than state percentage)

And here are the worst ...

#2. Essex County
- Estimated percentage of adults with diabetes: 12% (2 points higher than state percentage)

#1. Cumberland County
- Estimated percentage of adults with diabetes: 12% (2 points higher than state percentage)

Sadly it really is true. You can see with counties like Hunterdon and Morris having the fewest cases and counties like Essex, Salem and Camden being among the most, how affluent a county is really does affect the diabetes rate.

To read more on how they crunched the numbers go here.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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