Experts fear that thousands of diabetes sufferers are being misdiagnosed

[Northerner]

Thought this might deserve a place here rather than in News:

Experts have warned that thousands of people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes could, in fact, be perfectly healthy.

The Royal College of General Practitioners and NHS Diabetes have published evidence from an audit of five GP practices in Surrey, covering 45,000 patients.

This revealed that two per cent of those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes didn't have the condition at all - which equates to around 50,000 misdiagnoses in the whole of the UK.

http://lifestyle.aol.co.uk/2012/01/...ousands-of-diabetes-sufferers-are-being-misd/

My consultant is mentioned! 🙂

 

[lizabetic]

Honestly, these pictures they put in these articles! That is not how you are supposed to test your blood sugar 🙂

Surely it will be a good thing that these people aren't experiencing symptoms? Obviously I think that they should be testing HbA1c and several random samples before. Surely that cannot be too difficult to do beforehand anyway? But if they send people that don't have symptoms but have an off target BS to the hospital where tests prove they are in early stages T2 then that could potentially be a great thing to prevent it!

 

[Vicsetter]

Isn't this media reporting again? Metformin is prescribed to reduce cardiac risks, so anyone borderline (and of a certain age and size) will be prescribed it automatically and, being cynical it probably makes it easier for a GP practice to label a patient as diabetic.

 

[hotchop]

I test on the pads of my fingers... It doesnt hurt as much as the side of the finger and I rotate each test.. works ok for me 🙂