You can’t fail to have seen the news this week that diabetes cases are rising so much that managing diabetics will soon be costing a sixth of the whole NHS budget. That is truly shocking. It is mainly Type 2 cases that are on the rise, and this is a disease of Western civilisation and diet really so is pretty easily preventable in most cases.
Type 1 incidentally has a major link with gluten sensitivity – in fact, people with coeliac disease and Type 1 Diabetes have the same gene pattern! This is due to the fact that we know gluten damage causes auto-ommunity and Tpe 1 is an auto-immune disease. Check my site at www.trulyglutenfree.co.uk for more on this issue.
I listened to the news where various bodies were advocating spending more research on diagnosing early to avoid diabetic complications which is where the real money is spent apparently. That’s sound advice but wouldn’t it be even better if we actually educated enough people how to avoid the lifestyle practices that cause it in the first place and looked for much earlier indicators instead of waiting for the disease to strike and then trying to reverse it?
I have written before several times on easy measures to take to avoid diabetes so have a read for some simple advice.
There are also some fantastic tests around to find very early indicators in at-risk people so use them. You can read about Pre-D and MetSyn tests here.
Don’t become one of the statistics! Many more people need to take responsibility for preventing diseases like diabetes or the NHS we know and love will collapse. Food (low GL, of course) for thought.
Related articles
- Diabetes threatens to ‘bankrupt’ NHS within a generation (guardian.co.uk)
I read this too and it frustrates me that the answers are mostly already out there – lifestyle and responsibility for our diets. A friend of mine with diabetes switched GP’s last year at a time when her previous GP was upping her diabetes medicine and she was just feeling worse and worse
. Her new GP challenged her on her weight and diet, which she made significant changes to and within a few months she was a different person and practically off her diabetes meds. Sometimes it’s actually quite simple. We make things too complicated and as a society are too often in a culture of just ‘give me a pill to fix it’. Where’s the self responsibility in that?
Well said, Clare. It truly is all about diet and lifestyle in 99% of cases. But you can lead a horse to water and all that… Not that I am calling any of you a horse, of course!!
LOL! But sometimes I am – especially when it comes to the sweet stuff!! There is always room for improvement!
I’m not exactly perfect either but at least we try!