An All Out Assault on Diabetes Prevention
Posted on July 24, 2008 by Michael Douglas, MD, MBA
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.”
Thanks for the information on diabetes prevention. It is good to know people are taking action against pre-diabetes.
We recently wrote an article on at Brain Blogger. Did you know that people with type 2 diabetes have a risk of developing depression? Did you also know that people with depression have a risk of developing type 2 diabetes? Maybe could it be the medication connecting them together?
We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Sorr, I forgot to add the link to the article! Here it is: http://brainblogger.com/2008/07/23/which-came-first-depression-or-diabetes/