Diabetes and Its Awful Toll Quietly Emerge as a Crisis - NY Times 1/9/06

[Coastie for Truth]

Diabetes and Its Awful Toll Quietly Emerge as a Crisis - NY Times 1/9/06

Begin on the sixth floor, third room from the end, swathed in fluorescence: a 60-year-old woman was having two toes sawed off. One floor up, corner room: a middle-aged man sprawled, recuperating from a kidney transplant. Next door: nerve damage. Eighth floor, first room to the left: stroke. Two doors down: more toes being removed. Next room: a flawed heart.

As always, the beds at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx were filled with a universe of afflictions. In truth, these assorted burdens were all the work of a single illness: diabetes. Room after room, floor after floor, diabetes. On any given day, hospital officials say, nearly half the patients are there for some trouble precipitated by the disease.

An estimated 800,000 adult New Yorkers - more than one in every eight - now have diabetes, and city health officials describe the problem as a bona fide epidemic. Diabetes is the only major disease in the city that is growing, both in the number of new cases and the number of people it kills. And it is growing quickly, even as other scourges like heart disease and cancers are stable or in decline.

Already, diabetes has swept through families, entire neighborhoods in the Bronx and broad slices of Brooklyn, where it is such a fact of life that people describe it casually, almost comfortably, as "getting the sugar" or having "the sweet blood."

But as alarmed as health officials are about the present, they worry more about what is to come.

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Diabetes is not the result of indulgence - it is a genetic disease - carried in our DNA -- here are some good survey articles:

1.

2.

3.


And, we can afford to do it right:

1.

2. - The "correction" is a collection of self serving LTTE's from US physicians who like things the way it is - real Bill Frist types.

[daleanime]

1. Saving Lives and Money is not what this administration is about...

it's about making money, and if some one saves money, some one else makes less.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. The health care crisis is a DIRECT cause of the flight of jobs from the US

Not the only cause - but a DIRECT and MAJOR cause of the flight of jobs. The secret - which ain't no secret anywhere else in the industrialized world - is single payer, tax funded health care.

[daleanime]

3. I agree....

long term it makes sense in every way. Short term-earning for a few business go down. Its sad that they pay more attention to the short for the few and not the long term for all.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. It's been a crisis for me for 5 1/2 years

But I'm one of the very lucky ones: I was caught very early, and I have medical insurance through my employer. As a result, I was able to change my eating and exercise habits and went 4 years without needing any medication at all.

A class on diabetes management after I was diagnosed: covered by my insurance.
Monitor and testing strips: covered by my insurance.
Meds: covered by my insurance.
Check-up with my doctor every three months: covered by my insurance.
Blood work for "long term" blood sugars and cholesterol screening done with my quarterly check-up: covered by my insurance.

That is the second problem: a lot of people are getting diagnosed, and few people have the means to cover the necessary care.

The first problem, of course, is the increase in obesity. The epidemic is not Type I diabetes, where the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to metabolize glucose in the blood; the epidemic is Type II, or so-called "insulin resistant" diabetes. That has a strong genetic component, yes -- my mother and her father both have Type II, same as I -- but maintaining a healthy body weight can do a great deal to keep diabetes from developing. When apples are going for $2.99 a pound, lettuce for $1.99 a head and chicken for $4.99 a pound, plus the amount of time it takes to turn raw food in to a mean, it is just easier to grab a soda and a bag of chips.

[daleanime]

5. True...

Scared that I have diabetes, but no insurance. So just trying to eat better and exercise more.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. You are still better off seeing a doctor and getting checked

At the very least, look around and see if any medical centers or research facilities are working on diabetes medications. It is possible to get in to a study and get free medical care, at least for a short while. In the long run, the out-of-pocket costs for diabetes treatment in the early stages is much, much less than latter costs of untreated diabetes. Dialysis is very expensive (diabetes is one of the leading causes of kidney failure), and what price do you put on your eyesight (diabetes is the leading cause of non-glaucoma related blindness)? How will you take care of your family if you lose a leg from gangrene cause by a simple infection (diabetes is the leading cause of non-injury related limb amputation)? How will you have a family if diabetes related nerve damage leaves you impotent or unable to conceive?

I know I'm not being fair; I wish I could be. But like I said, diabetes runs in my family and I know too well what happens when people don't get treated. It ain't pretty.

A quick blood test can determine if you need more than just to "eat better and exercise more." If you wait until problems like these force you to see a doctor, you might as well kiss your spouse good bye; the damage will have been done and there will be nothing anyone can do to reverse it. Diabetes related damage to nerves, kidneys, retinas, blood vessels and heart tissue is permanent and progressive. The best you can hope for is to keep things from getting worse. That is why Type-2 diabetes is such a danger.

So ask around and find a clinic that does free or low-cost diabetes / blood glucose screenings. Sign up for a diabetes medical study; with diabetes becoming known as a huge problem, many facilities are doing research and, at the least, will do the tests as part of their application process. If you think diabetes is an issue for you, GO, NOW. The longer you wait, the greater will be the cost, and risk to your life.

[eridani]

8. What would stop Type II diabetes

--is if all the genetically susceptible people spent their entire lives doing daily hard physical labor on short rations like their ancestors did. In a sedentary society with enough to eat, that isn't possible. True, you can exercise more and watch your intake of foods with high glycemic index, but that will just postpone your eventual genetic fate. Sure, it's worth doing and I recommend it. Last birthday, I officially outlived my father, and when his mother was my age she had been dead for seven years. So there's a lot to be said for getting aggressive during the prediabetic phase of your life.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

6. Why Steam Cell research & insurance are so important..

First of all thanks for this post. There is a lot of good info here. I was diagnosed with type II diabetes last March. It is a scary disease to have, especially without insurance. Fortunately, I have insurance, but would be hurting without it since my prescription bill is $300 a month (definite money maker for the drug industry). It was caught early & now I have the glucose under control, but it is a progressive disease that can only get worse with age. There is some hope that steam cell research could eventually find treatment if not a cure for it, but the bozo right wingers will have nothing of that. I spoke with a republican aunt - who has diabetes - of mine about this & her attitude was that she is older now & this research will not effect her. As a response, I pointed out that it could effect her children & grandchildren.

It is not enough to have insurance for everyone. The US medical system has to become more preventive than crisis oriented, but he gop gov't may not be interested in that. The government does cost/benefit analysis which points out that the longer people live the more it will cost the government. So much for the 'culture of life'.