Gastroparesis Statistics: What do they tell us?

Before you look below, knowing what you know about the disease, can you guess the number of people in the United States who are impacted by Gastroparesis?     Most people would probably guess too low.  The people who see this as a trick question would probably guess higher - and still be too low.    When you have never heard of a condition, your instant reaction probably is that hardly anyone suffers from it.    If I were to tell you that 5-20% of the United States population gets the flu every year, you probably would think of that number as being accurate (it is).

But if I were to tell you that it is estimated that 5 million people in the United States have Gastroparesis, you may be taken aback a bit.    However, that is also the truth.

Now, when you break down that number, it comes out to approximately 1.6% of Americans.  That number may seem low when you look at it in percentage form, but it actually represents a fairly high number for any condition.    

Let us look at other conditions:

Parkinson's:  1 million

MS:  250,000-350,000

ALS:  20,000-30,000

I can go on and on with the list if I wanted to .  As I stated in other entries, my intention here is to not downplay other obviously severe conditions.   My intention is to show that Gastroparesis should be treated with the same type of urgency as other conditions.

Of course, the statistics don't tell us everything.  Sure, ALS only has 30,000 people who suffer from it.  Obviously, the reason for that is simple:  Most people die from it within five years, which means you aren't going to have a high number of living cases.    Diseases that don't have high death rates are going to have higher active numbers.

This is what can make the disease unbearable for the millions who suffer with it:  You aren't likely to die from it, but most of the time, you will find living to be a chore.     Who would want to go through life like that?  You know the statistics are in your favor to live - but the statistics also show you may not get better. 

This is why more needs to be done - the Johns Hopkins breakthrough is only the beginning.  If that can help save people's lives (not just talking about saving from death - talking about getting back to their lives before Gastroparesis), it could potentially lead more experts and doctors to dig into even better ways to save people.    Once the ball gets rolling, the potential for success is limitless.  Unfortunately, not many researchers have even picked up the ball, never mind try to actually roll it.