Diabetes rises by 50% in five years fuelled by soaring levels of obesity

[Northerner]

The number of diabetes sufferers in Britain has risen by 50 per cent in just five years, fuelled by soaring levels of obesity, campaigners warn.
Some three million adults and children now have the condition, after an increase of more than 117,000 in the past 12 months alone.
The Diabetes UK charity warns that the NHS is now spending ?9billion every year treating patients, which is almost a tenth of its budget.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...soaring-levels-obesity.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

 

[FM001]

One of the main headlines on Daybreak news, you have to ask yourself can the NHS cope with such a huge increase?

 

[Northerner]

One of the main headlines on Daybreak news, you have to ask yourself can the NHS cope with such a huge increase?

It is pretty awful news, but I do wonder how much diabetes would cost if people were actually given the help and support they need to learn how to manage things well. So much of the emphasis is on prevention, and it seems once you are diagnosed, for many people it's like 'I told you so' and they are left confused, depressed and floundering. Yes, we need to try and prevent it, but we also need to help turn things around for diagnosed people. People who understand their diabetes and learn to manage it well become great advocates about what can be achieved - we see it here every day - and this would stimulate a huge message of hope and reduce hugely the risk and subsequent costs of complications.

I get heartily tired of reading endless reports of negativity - maybe they help persuade a few to modify their diet and lifestyle, but clearly nowhere near enough, so I think it needs to be looked at in a different way - educate and support those who have had the 'kick up the backside' of diagnosis to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

90% of overweight and obese people don't have D, (though 800,000 are undiagnosed). Even people *with* D can go through denial/rejection so it's unsurprising that so many at risk just carry on carrying on. But you are absolutely right Northie, if every Dx'd person was a well informed advocate then many people would hear the message from someone they know rather than the constant negative meeja/government nagging.

 

[Barb3234]

I also wonder how many would be 'diabetic' if it weren't for the tightening of numbers by gps? At an fbg of 7.2, would I have been called diabetic 10 years ago, especially in view of the fact that blood test also showed high ESR results indicating i was fighting an infection, which we all know can increase bg's.

Having been 'diagnosed' I also question the varying attitude of gps' - mine just wanted me to go onto tablets as 'I was unlikely to keep up the effort required to lower my blood sugar myself'. No wonder the NHS is struggling when gp's don't even want to give the 'free' treatment a go.

Also interesting to note that our population is growing by 500,000 every year, which must also have an impact on numbers diagnosed; more people, more diabetics.

 

[Northerner]

...Having been 'diagnosed' I also question the varying attitude of gps' - mine just wanted me to go onto tablets as 'I was unlikely to keep up the effort required to lower my blood sugar myself'. No wonder the NHS is struggling when gp's don't even want to give the 'free' treatment a go.

From many of the experiences shared here it seems that many health care professionals lack even very rudumentary knowledge of diabetes. This is particularly shameful, given its prevalence - GPs and nurses can hardly claim it to be a rarely encountered disease. Even the argument that insulin-controlled diabetes is relatively rare falls down when you read that there are nearly 1m T2s on insulin and 300k T1s.

Here again is the nonsense quoted by those advocating the health reforms, that the person you 'trust most' with your care will be given the budget to help you most - how many times have we heard how disinterested or ignorant many GPs are when it comes to diabetes management? Even, as you say here Barb, lacking in any form of encouragement? Grrrr!!!! 😡

 

[AlisonM]

[RANT]I seriously doubt that there has been a huge rise in the number of diabetics because of 'soaring obesity'. I think a good part of it is down to better diagnostic tools. What is clearly lacking is any comprehensive and systematic help for those who are newly diagnosed. The NICE/SIGN guidelines are inadequate and largely ignored by professionals. DESMOND(?) courses are not universally available and where they are availble are patients are rarely offered places on them, and indeed, don't even know they exist.

What we need is for the NHS to provide proper support and education for the newly diagnosed in a positive fashion. If we could ensure that, then we might be able to build an advocate system as an adjunct to proper treatment plans. Handing out diet and exercise sheets which are often outdated and expecting folk to just get on with it is unrealistic and unfair. How many times lately have we read of folk on here struggling to find any support and being given incomplete or vague information on their condition and no practical materials to use in learning what to do? Our members at least have our support, but how does it work for those out there who don't have this place to turn to?

Something I feel DUK should be working on is a media campaign on behalf of Diabetics across the UK asking for positive action plus positive and practical support of Diabetics learning to manage their condition. Diabetes is a lifetime condition and the short sighted, short term cost concerns of the NHS. It's obvous to anyone who thinks about it that good initial care and maintenance will cut costs long term. That needs to be made clear too.[/RANT]

 

[Ellie Jones]

If society want to change an out come, then it needs to change it's attitude and perceptions.

As a society we changed the attitude of being Fat and fundemently it's your fault... Into a medical condition and taken the blame away from the individual! So

Obesity becomes very much like my T1, a chronic illness which the individual couldn't avoid getting!

So if we want things to change we need to turn the clock back, where people were fat and it's there fault!

That is the kick up the backside that they need, not the ***** footing around that we presently see...

Sometimes you just need to be cruel to be kind

 

[Nyadach]

*going to apologise first as well, I am rather blunt here*

Saw a article and that had Type 1 as being pretty much same percentage it's always been just with slight annual fluctuation.

As for the rest of the figures. You can pretty much walk down any high street and see it for yourself. The country is obese. I have a friend who's 25 and I can fit into one of his trouser legs, and he doesn't understand why he's fat...the fact he's drinking 1500 calories of hot chocolate a day (I counted it to make a point) let alone everything else isn't helping is it! But he does the usual denials of I'm big boned pfft, and something's making me fat....yeah true, it's the 4000 calories a day your shovelling in!

Am also utterly annoyed at all these folks protesting that places like McDonalds etc should be taxed to hell and back as they sell fast food. No, they are meeting a demand, nothing else. Taxation doesn't need to be used, common sense when walking into the places does.

The explosion is 90% all caused the sad state of this country these days in nothing is ever there own fault. Sadly, it is. And about time the NHS just laid it out bluntly. Show what happens, show how folk who utterly ignore the problem can have circulation go to hell and gangrene set in and the mess it makes of there feet (meet a very old time diabetic like that and it scared me senseless) and say it like it is.

 

[Northerner]

*going to apologise first as well, I am rather blunt here*

Saw a article and that had Type 1 as being pretty much same percentage it's always been just with slight annual fluctuation.

As for the rest of the figures. You can pretty much walk down any high street and see it for yourself. The country is obese. I have a friend who's 25 and I can fit into one of his trouser legs, and he doesn't understand why he's fat...the fact he's drinking 1500 calories of hot chocolate a day (I counted it to make a point) let alone everything else isn't helping is it! But he does the usual denials of I'm big boned pfft, and something's making me fat....yeah true, it's the 4000 calories a day your shovelling in!

Am also utterly annoyed at all these folks protesting that places like McDonalds etc should be taxed to hell and back as they sell fast food. No, they are meeting a demand, nothing else. Taxation doesn't need to be used, common sense when walking into the places does.

The explosion is 90% all caused the sad state of this country these days in nothing is ever there own fault. Sadly, it is. And about time the NHS just laid it out bluntly. Show what happens, show how folk who utterly ignore the problem can have circulation go to hell and gangrene set in and the mess it makes of there feet (meet a very old time diabetic like that and it scared me senseless) and say it like it is.

T1 is actually increasing at quite a rate too, unfortunately - if 10% of diabetics have T1 and the total number of diabetics is increasing, then the T1s are increasing in similar proportion.

I do agree that people should take responsibility, but really that is my point - so many of them don't because they think it will never happen to them, no matter how often you show them distressing pictures of what might happen to them - look at how many people still smoke despite the very hard-hitting campagns and taxation that has gone on in the past 30-40 years.

My point is that, since you are going to actually persuade fewer people to get their act together prior to diagnosis you need to make your future savings by properly educating them once they have had the 'ultimate' warning that, yes, it CAN happen to you so now you have no choice in the matter - but here's how you can deal with it and overcome the problems.

 

[Nyadach]

T1 is actually increasing at quite a rate too, unfortunately - if 10% of diabetics have T1 and the total number of diabetics is increasing, then the T1s are increasing in similar proportion.

Was an article a couple months back where against percentage of population was vague the same, although when broken down the biggest concerns was in the various ethnic bands where I believe if I remember right (probably utterly wrong as going off memory here) was some huge raises in eastern European, middle eastern and afro/Caribbean type 1's. But think this figure was all over a 10 year period. But I think the beeb's comments on it where pretty much it just followed change in population densities in the UK so wasn't really anything more than statistical fluff. Guess it's the usual, lies, damned lies, and statistics 😛

Good point about smoking. Can see things going down that line with the gov sooner or later over taxing certain types of foods. And I know the gov keeps trying with it's Change for Life thing...doubt it's getting anywhere though it seems.

But as one site put it:

As I mentioned earlier. We've tried all sorts with my friend. Sadly he doesn't get it, which is really weird as he's not exactly dumb as a aero engineer but nope...doesn't see what we're on about. We've all tried the softly softly approach to no avail, and are now just returning to subtle levels of general Cumbrian charm and referring to him as the fat b****d which seems to be having the most effect so far if only on stopping him downing family sized packets of crisps or a tube of Pringles as "a snack" 😛

 

[Northerner]

I think some people just don't realise that perhaps what they consider a reasonable portion size is way too much, and often of the wrong thing - it may depend on how you have been brought up. Certainly, from watching programmes like Jamie Oliver's about knowledge and education about food in schools (and the lack of availability of good quality food there) it seems a lot of children start off on the wrong path. More investment there would be money worth spending.

And not forgetting, of course, that not everyone is overweight because they eat too much, or the wrong things - weight gain can have very complex underlying causes so again the problem may lie in a lack of support or education for many people.

 

[mcdonagh47]

T1 is actually increasing at quite a rate too, unfortunately - if 10% of diabetics have T1 and the total number of diabetics is increasing, then the T1s are increasing in similar proportion.
.

American research suggests T1 diabetes is rising rapidly, particularly among non-white males and children aged 0-4.

"Extrapolation of these trends indicated that the global incidence of type 1 diabetes would increase by 40% over the period 1998-2010"
Medscape.

 

[Catwoman76]

If society want to change an out come, then it needs to change it's attitude and perceptions.

As a society we changed the attitude of being Fat and fundemently it's your fault... Into a medical condition and taken the blame away from the individual! So

Obesity becomes very much like my T1, a chronic illness which the individual couldn't avoid getting!

So if we want things to change we need to turn the clock back, where people were fat and it's there fault!

That is the kick up the backside that they need, not the ***** footing around that we presently see...

Sometimes you just need to be cruel to be kind

On the whole, I do agree with Ellie here.
Tia's dad has a dibilitating Lung condition, he did abuse his body, big time and now, well, The thing is he has put on quite a lot of weight, he has been tested for Diabetes but he hasn't got it, 🙂 thank god he said as he didn't want yet another condition, but he is pirme material for Type 2, but isn't. At least he did cut out the smoking and is only drinking a small amount of Alcohol, that I know of. It's a wake up call and thankfully, for him and Tia, he woke up big time.

I have said so many times before, a lot of people live in our now lazy society. I feel sorry( not) when I hear people moaning about their busy lives driving the kids to school, they should be walking!, driving to work at their sit down jobs, driving home or driving to the Supermarket and putting all that shopping in the car, driving home, unpacking food, they are tired out by now so phone for a takeaway, someone drives to go and collect it or waits at home for the delivery. This is the real world for millions of people, they know what they are doing, but just carry on regardless.
People have always overindulged, smoking, drinking over eating or eating unhealthily.
We have too many gadgets for an easy life, pressing this button and that one. A tougher approach must be used to try and stop this condition from soaring out of control and eventually killing the NHS that is so desperatley needed . The money will not be there forever . We have a choice of how we live our lives and we must try and make a good choice. Obviously people with debilitating conditions cannot just turn things around, but prevention, on the whole, is still better than cure. I hate to think what it will be like in 10 to 20 yrs and beyond, it's frightening. Sheena

 

[heasandford]

I think some people just don't realise that perhaps what they consider a reasonable portion size is way too much, and often of the wrong thing - it may depend on how you have been brought up. Certainly, from watching programmes like Jamie Oliver's about knowledge and education about food in schools (and the lack of availability of good quality food there) it seems a lot of children start off on the wrong path. More investment there would be money worth spending.

And not forgetting, of course, that not everyone is overweight because they eat too much, or the wrong things - weight gain can have very complex underlying causes so again the problem may lie in a lack of support or education for many people.

Can I just put in a sideline here: school meals from local authorities are now seriously regulated to levels of calories, fat etc. The 'quality' may not be as good as you would like (I remember 'lamb' in my junior school a thousand years ago and still struggle with it!) but we are not talking fast food anymore

 

[slipper]

|The problem today is we have "sound bite diagnosis" by Jo Public.

I have severe ME, thus I am a malingerer.
I have Type 2, thus I am obese.

Whilst there may be some basis in the above in some cases, life is just not that simple. I used to run 1 business and two jobs, but probably ran myself into ill health.

Instead of being so negative, these surveys should address the problems mentioned above in that the support we need as newly diagnosed diabetics simply is not there, and whilst the outline plan is offered, ie education, the details are missing. As for ME, the Norwegian Director of Health has appologised for the way their ME patients have been treated (better than here) after research established a neurological reason for the illness.(http://www.euro-me.org/news-Q42011-003.htm)

Ok, feel better now;

 

[Northerner]

Can I just put in a sideline here: school meals from local authorities are now seriously regulated to levels of calories, fat etc. The 'quality' may not be as good as you would like (I remember 'lamb' in my junior school a thousand years ago and still struggle with it!) but we are not talking fast food anymore

That's good to hear, although it doesn't seem to stop the kids from my local school just going to the chip shop every day (not all of them, I know!). In my day you were only allowed off school premises at lunchtime if you were in the sixth form or lived close enough to go home for lunch - you couldn't even cross the road to the newsagents without being punished!

In Jamie's recent US series they had all the regulations about what needed to be in the meals in terms of protein, fat, carbs etc., but muc of the food was pretty much reconstituted dogfood leftovers, with nothing fresh on offer and nothing made from scratch - pizzas for breakfast and chocolate milk - not a drop of ordinary milk. I can't really comment on how things are in British schools now because I have no experience apart from the TV programmes, so I'll get me coat 😉

 

[squidge63]

I also agree with Eliie and Nyadach, I read the paper daily while I have my latte in Starbucks, I sit at the window and watch the world go by. The amount of overweight adults and children is amazing, overhead two kids probably 9-11 (no good at ages), they had just had their frappucinos and then they were off to McDonalds. The same when the schools are out the amount of kids that go into McDonalds before going home, is that their evening meal? or do they eat again when they get home?

I see friends on Facebook who are majorly overweight and are part of the "big is beautiful" brigade, each to their own, but don't they see what their obesity is doing to their health, maybe they just don't care. I have always been overweight, at 11 I weighed 11 stone, I have battled with weight all my life and I have, and still trying, to lose weight, I weighed myself this morning and was 80KG, my last DSN appt was 84Kg (but it did clothes on lol).

It wasn't until I had a TIA followed by a stroke the next day, that I thought I really must try harder to lose weight. Like everyone I slip occasionally, but feel bad afterwards. I have had another TIA about 3 weeks ago which just affected my speech, I must have had it in my sleep, like my stroke, as I don't remember anything untoward happening. I have a very overweight friend who eats all the wrong things, smokes like a trooper and drinks. I have never smoked (apart 1 week trying it), and since being diabetic hardly drink, unless I go to a party or gathering I will have 1 or 2 pints, and that will be me for the year. I get the diabetes, cardiovascular disease, pvd, neuropathy and a stroke.. my friend NOTHING.. The other thing that makes me mad is overweight people who have caused the problem all by themselves, get disability and incapacity benefit because they have become immobile due to their weight, I see quite a few obese people riding around on their scooters, into McDonalds I saw one go in to.

 

[Northerner]

I think that we are being sidetracked a little into the often discussed opinions about weight, but really I intended this to be about the fact that people are NOT given the support they need when diagnosed. Effort needs to be made on both fronts, not just prevention, but also on proper treatment and education when diagnosed, where it appears help evaporates for short-term savings.

 

[Steff]

I certainly do care Squide but im sick of losing weight for the wrong reasons i.e to fit in or to please others so I stopped and then realised I could not carry on as I have a son and I dont want to die before he hits his teens.I am big and I am happy the weight issues I have are at the bottom of a very large pile of my problems, I wont be bullied into losing weight I will do it my way and I am succseeding at the moment, I dont need some nasty mate calling me a fat ??$?""? to open my eye or a group of people fat bashing...I do try hard but it wont take over my life, i have good and bad days like most battling there weight but i will get there and when I do it will make me so proud