For Diabetics, Health Risks Decline Sharply

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  Apr 17, 2014 1:42 AM GMT

  NYT: The number of Americans with diabetes more than tripled over the period of the study and is now nearly 26 million. Nearly all the increase came from Type 2 diabetes, which is often related to obesity and is the more common form of the disease. An additional 79 million Americans have pre-diabetes, which means they are at high risk of developing the disease.
  
  Federal researchers on Wednesday reported the first broad national picture of progress against some of the most devastating complications of diabetes, which affects millions of Americans, finding that rates of heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and amputations fell sharply over the past two decades.
  
  The biggest declines were in the rates of heart attacks and deaths from high blood sugar, which dropped by more than 60 percent from 1990 to 2010, the period studied. While researchers had had patchy indications that outcomes were improving for diabetic patients in recent years, the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, documents startling gains.
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/health/diabetes-complications-show-sharp-decline-report-finds.html?hpw&rref=us

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• britmed
  
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  Apr 17, 2014 9:00 PM GMT

  Unfortunately as medical advances have made huge strides in dealing with the high mortality risk diseases (MI, stroke, certain cancers, progressive lung diseases), healthcare is battling the uphill struggle of public health and availability of lifestyle choices.
  
  As the Western diet becomes synonymous with high sugar, high fat, cheap and convenience, people are getting bigger. This has the obvious consequence of obesity, which is associated with hypertension, PVD, sleep apnoea, orthopedic disability, depression and a host of other issues. These can't be treated unless the underlying cause is addressed and so medicine faces a sort of arms race it can't possibly win.
  
  I was in hospital the other week and a man with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes had a hugely ulcerated foot and was informed it had to be removed. He was devastated and I felt hugely sorry for him. As a society we need to stop blaming those with weight or lifestyle issues and seek solutions.

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  Apr 18, 2014 7:30 AM GMT

  britmed saidUnfortunately as medical advances have made huge strides in dealing with the high mortality risk diseases (MI, stroke, certain cancers, progressive lung diseases), healthcare is battling the uphill struggle of public health and availability of lifestyle choices.
  
  As the Western diet becomes synonymous with high sugar, high fat, cheap and convenience, people are getting bigger. This has the obvious consequence of obesity, which is associated with hypertension, PVD, sleep apnoea, orthopedic disability, depression and a host of other issues. These can't be treated unless the underlying cause is addressed and so medicine faces a sort of arms race it can't possibly win.
  
  I was in hospital the other week and a man with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes had a hugely ulcerated foot and was informed it had to be removed. He was devastated and I felt hugely sorry for him. As a society we need to stop blaming those with weight or lifestyle issues and seek solutions.

  
  
  As a society, we need to demand that people take personal responsibility for their own health.
  
  A person doesn't suddenly wake up one morning 200 pounds overweight...it takes years of self abuse. You do not have to be very smart to know when you are getting fat.
  
  10 months ago, I had open heart surgery. It's tough. It was elective...before something terrible happened.. Now, I can take my heart rate to nearly 200, and I'm 53 years old, and built like a house. I didn't need to blame anyone for my heart disease, nor my rehab. I fucking did it. Fat asses can, too.
  
  You better bet the the fatass guy who lost his foot had been warned COUNTLESS times, but, refused to change...and...now...he's missing a foot. That will serve as daily reminder, huh?
  
  Same things with smokers. You don't just wake up one morning with COPD. You ignore good advice for YEARS.
  
  Stupid, lazy, people, are stupid, and lazy.
  
  In less than 10 months...I went from open heart surgery to well beyond my recommended max heart rate (167). I have no sympathy for folks who eat themselves to death.
  
  Did I change some stuff? Yep. I did. I added more fat to my diet (it was almost no fat before)...mostly poly and mono fats. My cholesterol is 100/38...unmedicated. My bp is 122/75 80...unmedicated. And, I am solid 210 pounds, at 5'5", and 53 years old. I take low dose aspirin and Plavix to make sure my heart doesn't get plugged up.
  
  From my cardiologist, two days ago: "Way to go Chuck! Glad all is well. Good luck on the competition!"
  
  Lots of folks need to get up off their ass and get MOVING, and, if shit is poison, don't fucking eat it. We've all seen Supersize Me. This isn't new news.

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• britmed
  
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  Apr 18, 2014 1:02 PM GMT

  chuckystud said

  britmed said
  
  You better bet the the fatass guy who lost his foot had been warned COUNTLESS times, but, refused to change...and...now...he's missing a foot. That will serve as daily reminder, huh?
  
  Same things with smokers. You don't just wake up one morning with COPD. You ignore good advice for YEARS.
  
  Stupid, lazy, people, are stupid, and lazy.
  
  In less than 10 months...I went from open heart surgery to well beyond my recommended max heart rate (167). I have no sympathy for folks who eat themselves to death.

  
  
  
  I'm glad you have achieved so much for yourself and have clearly overcome some difficult circumstances to be healthy today, but you're missing the point. We live in a society where obesity, addiction-related disease (COPD, liver/renal failure) and cardiovascular disease are growing epidemics.
  
  These are often the result from unhealthy lifestyle choices which are on the rise. You can sit there an look on an individual basis and call people 'stupid', 'lazy' or 'fatass' but you are doing little to be part of a solution, and may in fact contribute to the problem.
  
  We need to understand the factors that drive people to make these health-affecting decisions so that we can offer support to help. You speak about how you were helped by the medical profession and now are much healthier for it. We need to constantly be reviewing how best to help others. It doesn't work (and it is proven not to work) to shout or insult people to make healthier choices. To encourage someone to give up smoking it is much more effective to say 'you will add years to your life' than to say 'if you don't stop you will die early'.
  
  I am truly happy that you are currently in good health. But by writing off people who 'eat themselves to death' and ignoring all the factors behind that that you may not fully appreciate (ie. socioeconomic background, mental health, genetics, education, availability of help resources etc.) you are missing the point. Which is to facilitate reduction of disease. And it's worth bearing in mind that there would have been a point in the past that you would have been written off for having poor cardiovascular health and not given the help you need.

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  Apr 18, 2014 1:36 PM GMT

  And don't forget that the reason why some of these people are obese is because food companies engineer processed food to be as addictive as drugs. See this NYT investigative article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?_r=0

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