Flora Heart Age calculator

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Northerner

Northerner

Admin (Retired)
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi, I wrote to Balance following the letter that appeared where someone had been upset by the fact that including diabetes meant that your 'heart age' was usually really scary and not taking the slightest account of keeping fit with good control, which is what we are supposed to do to keep our hearts healthy.

This is the response I got from Balance, which I find confusing still and was wondering if it's just me - they seem to be saying, yes it's true your heart is effectively damaged (as if you'd had a heart attack), but that good control will help reduce the risk of damaging your heart. I think it would be more useful if there was a study that could tell us what sort of control those that had died from heart attacks had had, as compared to those who hadn't. Shouldn't the message be 'Current figures show that most diabetics are dying of heart attacks. In the future, with better control, we can reverse that trend and get more diabetics NOT having heart attacks or CVD.'? I didn't find this encouraging at all.

Dear Alan,

Thank you for your email to Balance magazine regarding the Flora Heart Age calculator; congratulations for sustaining such a high level of fitness.

You are correct in thinking that good diabetes control can significantly reduce your risk of developing long-term complications of diabetes, which include amongst others cardiovascular disease.

Unfortunately, the statistics are alarming. Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death and disability in people with diabetes, accounting for 44% of fatalities in people with Type 1 diabetes and 52% of people with Type 2 diabetes. The risk of death from coronary heart disease is the same for people with diabetes as people without diabetes who have had a previous heart attack. For references, please see below.

The positive message that good diabetes control can significantly reduce your risk of developing long-term complications, such as cardiovascular disease, is emphasised throughout Diabetes UK's work. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to comment on another organisation's tool.
If you have any further enquiries, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Kind regards

Kind regards,
Kate Flagg
Publishing Coordinator
Diabetes UK

One person is diagnosed with diabetes every three minutes. Three people die from its complications every hour. It doesn't have to be like this, let's... GET SERIOUS - we simply need your name & email address - www.diabetes.org.uk/GetSerious
References
Morrish NJ, Wang SL, Stevens LK et al (2001). Mortality and causes of death in the WHO multinational study of vascular disease in diabetes. Diabetologia 44 suppl 2; s14–s21
Data from the American Diabetes Association suggest that deaths from cardiovascular disease are higher in people with diabetes in America accounting for 65 per cent of diabetes deaths: www.aafp.org/afp/20031015/1569.html
Schramm TK, Gislason GH, Kober L et al (2008). Diabetes patients requiring glucose lowering therapy and nondiabetics with a prior myocardial infarction carry the same cardiovascular risk: a population study of 3.3 million people. Circulation 117 (15); 1945–54
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(Sorry this is so long-winded!)
 
Wow... thats positive 😱

Hmmm not sure how i feel about that response from them!!

I'd be interested to know the age of these people in the statistics, are they under 60? 70?...100?.... at the end of the day, we all have to die of something.

Obviously if they're all fairly young then that is very upsetting/shocking.

what joy....🙄
 
This is the email I sent that they were responding to:

Your response to the person complaining about the Flora Heart Age calculator ? to read the article on ?The Magic Numbers? ? doesn?t actually address the complaint Graham Crooks is making. I tried this myself back in September and wrote to Flora questioning why they asked about diabetes but did not take account in any way the level of control the person might have had, length of diagnosis etc. The response I received is below. What they are saying is that diabetic control has no bearing on heart age, not does level of fitness (I?ve been a marathon runner for 25 years). In my view, Flora should simply say that the calculator cannot be applied to people with diabetes. Implying that your heart is instantly compromised to a significant degree whether you strive for good control or not is demoralising ? after all, what?s the point of keeping the rest of you fit and healthy if your heart is going to fail you? The problem is tat many people, especially the newly-diagnosed, will find this distressing. Can Diabetes UK intervene to get Flora to correct this?
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So basically they're saying 'no we can't get involved, because half of what flora are saying is right'
???

I've just entered my information in the flora thing and it's taking forever.
It doesn't ask about exercise either...

I think DUK are a confused bunch!
 
I must admit that I'm none the wiser about the message we're supposed to take from all this!:confused: I suppose we should just try harder to stop having diabetes, that might improve our chances!🙄
 
Northerner said:
I must admit that I'm none the wiser about the message we're supposed to take from all this!:confused: I suppose we should just try harder to stop having diabetes, that might improve our chances!🙄
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Concise, clear, un-confused, ermm advice and opinion reflected by the people so many trust to represent them!

I think I'd be proud to write such a self negating, contradictory email 🙄

How do I go about sending my diabetes back? I'm not worried about getting my money back, I've just decided after close on 10 years, it's not for me!
 
do flora sponser any of DUK or advertise in Balance ???
 
am64 said:
do flora sponser any of DUK or advertise in Balance ???
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Don't think so, but DUK probably are nervous because it's still the Flora London marathon isn't it? And DUK depends on that event for a lot of sponsorship and the charity places are like rocking horse dung to obtain...

Failing that Flora are bigger than any of us! 😱
 
Where's my returns coupon?

LOL.Hey, Einstein, when you find out how to send your diabetes back can you post the details? I love it......
I was reading today in our hospital staff newsletter (ok, i was looking at the pictures mostly) and it mentioned something about "lifestyle diseases" and how they were on the increase. I'm assuming this covers heart disease and diabetes (type two anyway...)Does that mean that being diabetic is like being really keen on recycling or only eating organic food or maxing out your credit card all the time?
(deleted rant about how the media seems to think you only get diabetes from being a slob....it was only getting me down....)
Anyway, i did that flora thing and apparently my heart is somewhat older than my parents... Don;t, whatever you do, admit to being on meds for blood pressure or cholesterol and not know what your levels are.... As Frazer from Dad's Army would say...."i'm doooomed"😛
 
ok, i was slightly more optimistic about my waist size...i got it down to 53. Still, that didn't seem to care what my cholesterol or blood pressure were, just that i'm diabetic and a tad overweight. Does everybody have a 20 year discrepancy? I'm curious.
Also, i noticed that the solution to this bizzare condition was to....wait for it.... eat more flora products!!!! Guys, if we eat lot of flora products maybe that will cure our diabetes!😉
 
RachelT said:
... As Frazer from Dad's Army would say...."i'm doooomed"😛
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frazer.jpg


'We're aaaaaallllll dooooomed!'

Two organisations supposedly promoting health and fitness have had the effect of making me thoroughly pessimistic about my future...


(but not for long!)😉
 
Well, my heart age is 'only' 5 years older than me...

However, it doesn't ask about autonomic neuropathy 😱
 
I'm 47 and got heart age of 67. Will try again in 6 months time when hopefully i will have lost more weight and see what it comes up with.
 
Northerner said:
frazer.jpg


'We're aaaaaallllll dooooomed!'

Two organisations supposedly promoting health and fitness have had the effect of making me thoroughly pessimistic about my future...


(but not for long!)😉
Click to expand...

Hi there,
There is, possibly, a sense in which good control might actually increase a diabetic's chances of (eventually) dying of cvd - if good control knocks out the likelihood of the OTHER complications for example. Presumably a well controlled T1 reduces the risk of dying of DKA and Dead-in-bed Syndrome and so increases the long term risk of dying of cvd ?
 
Peter C said:
Hi there,
There is, possibly, a sense in which good control might actually increase a diabetic's chances of (eventually) dying of cvd - if good control knocks out the likelihood of the OTHER complications for example. Presumably a well controlled T1 reduces the risk of dying of DKA and Dead-in-bed Syndrome and so increases the long term risk of dying of cvd ?
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That's one way of looking at it Peter - that the CV system is the last thing to go!🙂 It does annoy me though that silly tests and statistics imply that my heart is ten to fifteen years older than me, when the heart surgeon said my arteries were 'pristine' and I have a resting HR of around 45 bpm. I would say one thing though, I've felt a lot more 'mortal' since diagnosis.
 
Northerner said:
That's one way of looking at it Peter - that the CV system is the last thing to go!🙂 It does annoy me though that silly tests and statistics imply that my heart is ten to fifteen years older than me, when the heart surgeon said my arteries were 'pristine' and I have a resting HR of around 45 bpm. I would say one thing though, I've felt a lot more 'mortal' since diagnosis.
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I did a Nintendo Brain Age test on one of those games thingies. It said my "Brain Age" was 20 years younger than my chrono age. I am not doing it again - it might have been a fluke.
 
Peter C said:
I did a Nintendo Brain Age test on one of those games thingies. It said my "Brain Age" was 20 years younger than my chrono age. I am not doing it again - it might have been a fluke.
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I have one of those things, bought it for the brain draining - not sure if it's better to be younger or older mentally 🙄 :D
 
I just tried it. I told them that I did have diabetes, and got aged 32 ( 8 years older than me)
and without telling them I had diabetes, I was aged 25! So a supposed difference of just one year has suddenly earned me an additional 7, despite the fact my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are fairly awesome, and I exercise every day?! What?!
 
Don't make diabetes the scapegoat!

Personally I really object to diabetes being blamed for a whole host of problems - I think that if you have developed diabetes as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle - which can happen - and don't all shout me down for this - then conditions also associated with an unhealthy lifestyle also happen to you - they are not a result of your diabetes - they are a result of an unhealthy lifestyle.

Blaming diabetes for everything is not fair and in my opinion - wrong.😡
 
I personally agree with you! I don't think that anyone would argue that you CAN develop T2 as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle. The problem is when the automatic assumption is made that that's the ONLY reason you can develop it. At least in my mind
 
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