The aging of our nation has brought us more than a heightened sense of healthful well being, it has also pushed the concepts of preventive care and chronic disease management well beyond the pages of medical literature.  Besides patients and doctors; healthcare organizations, third party payers, the federal government (Medicare) and disease-oriented associations are claiming a bit of the pie with respect to the constant flow of information about these issues.

Lately, the target condition is diabetes.  Or, rather, pre-diabetes.

Pre-diabetes occurs when blood sugar levels or impaired glucose tolerance is elevated, but not quite to the point defined as diabetes. More than 56 million Americans currently suffer from pre-diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Diabetes has become the major problem in the United States,” Dr. Harold Lebovitz, a professor of medicine at the division of endocrinology and metabolism/diabetes at the State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn, said during a noon teleconference Wednesday.  […]

“The issue is, do you wait until patients really develop these catastrophic complications?” Lebovitz said. “Last year, it cost $170 billion in direct and indirect costs to take care of people with diabetes.”

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