Life Expectancy with Diabetes

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rebrascora said:
Like @travellor I see my diabetes diagnosis as potentially extending my lifespan rather than reducing it because I have used it as the kick up the backside I needed to make healthier changes to my lifestyle. It sounds like you are doing the same, so I think there is every reason for you to be optimistic rather than pessimistic.
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I love this idea! We have so many people on the forum for whom a diagnosis with a long term condition has actually brought about a host of positive changes, which have had a positive effect on their sense of health and wellbeing.

I agree with @Bruce Stephens - many of these ‘life expectancy’ predictions are full of gloom and despondency, and are based on old data which doesn’t really apply to you right now @Jenny65.

This is the sort of stuff that only ever applies at a ‘population level’ anyway. A general suggestion of “take a thousand people…” but not really applicable as a direct prediction for any one individual.

Who knows how long any of us have got anyway? Road accidents… freak infections… undetected heart frailty… sudden onset of inoperable cancer… All of our lives could be cut short any time.

It’s not the number of years we have - it’s what we make of them that counts 🙂

Hope you are able to take encouragement from folks here @Jenny65 - we are a community of people beating the odds every day, every week, every year, every decade 🙂
 
Let me die a youngman's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death

Roger McGough
 
Apologies for there being more than I realised in the last message - there were apparently 'extraneous links' traveling along, but they have now been removed.
 
Jenny65 said:
I am going to try and see myself in the same way. I mean giving up smoking, and changing to a healthy diet, exercise etc, basically there is nothing else I can do, unless they prescribe medication as well. I am fearful of my cholesterol level too, do you know if you lower it, the fat in your arteries will flow away or is it permanent damage?
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You've made super progress on the weight loss: I just keep off the beige food and eat healthy fats, meats and green stuff with the very occasional half slice of sour dough as a treat! Breakfasts are always eggs cooked whatever way or greek yoghurt and a topping of seeds. I do miss pasta but konjak 'slimpasta' has been a saviour for me. I am now very health conscious and avoid all sweet nonsense and carbs. I hope actually that now I'll live better and possibly longer?
 
My former optician's (now retired) father was diagnosed in the twenties (over 80 years ago) and lived to 85 (in mid nineties). He was fined until a consultant decided he should go onto synthetic insin. He quickly developed eye problems,ist his licence (quire demotivating) and died from complications of diabetes within a couple of years. Would he have made 90 or more if he has remained on porcine insulin?
 
I am so much healthier and happier than prior to diagnosis. I have my fingers crossed for a long life because I am enjoying it so much more than I did in my 30s (I am in my 60s now) and I have plans to start a new career in a few years time if everything pans out so I would be disappointed if that doesn't come to pass.
My mum is in her 90s and my father's step mum lived to over 110 so I am hopeful it can be done.
 
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This thread seems to have become very muddled and awfully difficult to follow and work out what relates to what anymore.
 
Leadinglights said:
This thread seems to have become very muddled and awfully difficult to follow and work out what relates to what anymore.
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I’ve split the thread into three separate conversations to make things easier to follow.
 
Remember life's to short to spend all your time on forums like this, so get out there & enjoy life or try to find a balance.
 
The 10 year quoted stat is a headline figure which would scare anyone initially

Forums like this one don't represent the general publics attitude to T2.
Best real world data I've found comes from 2019 in Scotland where they reviewed every diagnosed T2.
They found that only 4.8% (one in 20) were actually in remission.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003828

So that 10 years reduction in life expectancy is being skewed by the 95% (19 out of 20) that don't make the lifestyle or diet changes necessary to achieve an A1c <6.5%(48) & are more likely to rely on ever increasing meds.
How many years does obesity or high BP take off your life, all part of the metabolic syndrome.

You hit early, you hit this hard & you keep it up.
You'll end up adding 10 years to your life, not losing them.
 
EmmaL76 said:
My anxiety almost didn’t let me click on this thread… however true to form you guys smashed it with the positive vibes.
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I know we are quite similar with our anxieties from other threads ... the thing that helped me with this the most is pretty much what others have said on here, but what I saw in a facebook group - that any 'statistics' about diabetic life span include those who haven't managed it well, despite having the means to do so and those who died un-diagnosed. The poster in the group then went on to say if we manage it well we should live as long as non-diabetics, if not longer due to the fact that we are actually far more in tune with what our bodies are doing.
 
I just bought a camper van and will be going off to a folk festival.
We all must die, but some will have never truly lived.
 
I think what you said in the first place is very relevant about the bloke 'packing in the dialysis and just dying'.

Good God - if you happen to have kidney failure bad enough to need dialysis in the first place, it surely ain't rocket science to realise if you don't actually do the dialysis, you are most likely going to die.

(Or don't most people realise things like that, is it just me making an erroneous assumption about 'most people's' common sense?)
 
trophywench said:
I think what you said in the first place is very relevant about the bloke 'packing in the dialysis and just dying'.

Good God - if you happen to have kidney failure bad enough to need dialysis in the first place, it surely ain't rocket science to realise if you don't actually do the dialysis, you are most likely going to die.

(Or don't most people realise things like that, is it just me making an erroneous assumption about 'most people's' common sense?)
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I think some people will always self destruct for various reasons and it is more to do with mental health/psychiatric conditions/addictions than understanding stuff properly. Which is why people smoke, drink too much and take 'recreational' substances and if someone is stuck with those type of situations diabetes won't necessarily change their behaviours for the better. One thing being an autistic person has impressed on me over and over again over the decades is that 'people' in general are not logical and do counter-productive stuff even when they know it is dangerous or bad for them and others.
 
trophywench said:
I think what you said in the first place is very relevant about the bloke 'packing in the dialysis and just dying'.

Good God - if you happen to have kidney failure bad enough to need dialysis in the first place, it surely ain't rocket science to realise if you don't actually do the dialysis, you are most likely going to die.

(Or don't most people realise things like that, is it just me making an erroneous assumption about 'most people's' common sense?)
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Erm, while we are questioning "common sense", I suspect that was his whole point of electively choosing to stop dialysis?
 
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