Diabetes emerging as one of the most costly chronic conditions to manage

[Northerner]

Nearly 500,000 adults in Illinois and 600,000 adults in Indiana have some form of diabetes, according to their state health departments.

Increasing numbers of children and adolescents also have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes ? typically known as adult onset diabetes. And residents of urban areas have unique challenges in managing the disease.

Gregory Larkin, Indiana state health commissioner, wrote in a 2010 report on diabetes that the disease has emerged as one of the most prevalent and costly diseases affecting the state.

http://specialsections.suntimes.com...most-costly-chronic-conditions-to-manage.html

 

[HOBIE]

Not suprized in usa. In the 80s i went to calif & supermarket were selling 4ft sandwiches. You couldnt push trolly around wihout bumping into someons sarnie ! 😱

 

[grahams mum]

i believe that type 1 is still the most common in children and teenagers

 

[Northerner]

i believe that type 1 is still the most common in children and teenagers

Indeed, although I think Type2 was practically unheard in under-21s a few years ago, but is now on the increase. You only need to watch Jamie Oliver's programmes in the US to see why 😱

 

[MikeWeatherley]

Pissed off with all the 'Diabetism'

There, I've coined a new phrase: Diabetism = 'The unwarranted and
ill-informed criticism of diabetics'.

I'm afraid I'm fed up with all the government-sanctioned propaganda
against us diabetics saturating the media. Not content with sending
their own Department of Health spokesmen to this list to complain about
how much diabetes is costing the NHS (surprise, surprise) they seem to
have co-opted our own chief executive, Barbara Young, into saying the
same thing. Not only that, but the latest Channel 4 series, Food Hospital,
is perpetuating the myth that all diabetics are obese, and thus - like
smokers - our illness is self-inflicted. The clear implication is that the
government are undermining public sympathy with us in an effort to
reduce NHS spending on our condition. This sucks. There is a dubious
causal link between obesity and diabetes - especially since most who
are heavily obese are NOT actually diagnosed as diabetic! 😉

I was diagnosed with Type 2 a couple of years ago, after reaching my
mid forties, which is one of the 'genuine' risk-factors. I am not 'obese'
and never have been. I'm 5'10'' and 13.5 stones. But before anyone
says what nurses always do during a medical: "you're a stone over your
ideal (meaning 'average') weight for your height", you might like to ask
me to remove my shirt to look at my athletic physique, first (which they
never bother to do). That extra stone in weight is from the body-building
I did a decade ago, and which is still with me, consisting of large muscles
(deltoids and trapezia) in my chest, shoulders and upper-arms. It is not
fat, and therefore and does not contribute to the presumption of 'obesity'.
The nurse even has to go back to her drawer and find the 'extra-large'
cuff when taking my blood-pressure for my annual medical, which shows
how big my biceps are! 🙄

So I am extremely angry that the government have apparently targetted
all of us as a 'soft-target' in their idealogical aim to cut health spending
by accusing us of all being obese couch-potatoes who our GPs would be
justified in not treating. I say this as someone whose diabetes was not
sufficiently diagnosed for perhaps years due to the GP and four diabetic
nurses apparently not being trained to recognise that someone like me,
who is anaemic as well, has a much higher blood-glucose than can be
measured using just the standard HbA1C test alone (more about that in
a separate thread). Yet I've since come to wonder if my GP's reluctance
to prescribe me with the Metformin tablets which I clearly need was as
much based on a tacit or implicit directive by the government to cut
the NHS drugs bill for diabetes...😡

Anyway, nobody these days tolerates sexism, racism or ageism. Let's
not pander to the government/media sport of 'Diabetism'! 😎

Regards,
Mike

 

[Northerner]

Very well put Mike. I think part of the problem is that obesity is not just linked with diabetes, but also many other health problems so campaigns 'use' diabetes as a scare tactic to try and frighten all people into following a healthy diet and lifestyle. The problem, as you say, is that obesity isn't the only risk factor for diabetes, and in many cases is completely absent from the diagnosis.

 

[MikeWeatherley]

Thanks 😱)

Hi Northerner,

Eh oop lad, I reckon we've got this anti-diabetes lark on the run!
And thanks for underlining my newly coined: 'Diabetism' in red 😎
I was truly shocked that the chief-exec of our own charity seemed
to be jumping on the government band-wagon... especially when
she's meant to be on *our* side...

I've got a bit more news on the subject of my mis-diagnosis due to
being also anaemic, too, and will post it on the end of the thread:
'Seriously underdiagnosed type 2'

Regards,
Mike