Diabetes or Pre-Diabetes Now Strikes One in Four Americans

[Guest guest]

The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million people, or

roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population.A report by the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, based on data from 2007, indicates an increase of about

3 million cases since over just two years. The CDC estimates another 57 million

people have a condition called pre-diabetes, which puts people at increased risk

for the disease.

Diabetes results from defects in insulin production that cause sugar to build up

in the body. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/07/19/diabetes-or-pre-di\

abetes-now-strikes-one-in-four-americans.aspx?source=nl

I have been interested in diabetes for many years and actually did three

months of an endocrinology rotation at Cook County Hospital during my residency,

25 years ago. I was even going to specialize in it after I completed my

residency, but decided to pursue general family medicine instead.

 

Interestingly, most of my paternal relatives (my dad included), have, or

have died from, diabetes. In the late 90s I made the mistake of believing in

Dr. Dadamo's work in Eat Right for Your Blood Type. I since realized that it is

a flawed theory based on incorrect presumptions. However, at the time I thought

it made sense, so I tried it on myself.

 

I am blood type A, so I switched to a high grain diet and changed my high

intensity aerobic type exercises to walking like he suggested. Well, in a few

short weeks my fasting blood sugar rose to nearly 130. This told me two things.

The first was that I had diabetes, and the second was that Eat Right for Your

Blood Type is a flawed theory that helps some, but can really harm and damage

others.

 

Once I understood insulin physiology better and changed my diet and

exercise, nearly ten years ago now; my fasting blood sugar is almost always

around 90 or lower. This is far below the 125 required for a diagnosis of

diabetes.

 

My personal experience with diabetes and review of the literature made it

VERY clear to me that virtually every case of type 2 diabetes is 100 percent

reversible.

 

And let me guarantee you, the cure for type 2 diabetes has NOTHING to do

with giving insulin. Giving someone insulin with type 2 diabetes is one of the

WORST things that can be done. Any physician doing this is suffering from

profound ignorance of insulin physiology.

 

Unfortunately, the vast majority of physicians are still seriously

confused about this issue, which is why most doctors cause diabetics to D. I. E.

 

Diabetes Epidemic Continues to Worsen

 

The latest statistics on diabetes in the U.S. are sad indeed, and in my

opinion, they are a very clear sign that conventional medicine has it all wrong,

and their standard recommendations - both in terms of medication and nutrition

-- are incorrect.

 

At best, they simply do not work. At worst, they're aggravating your

problem and speeding up the deteriorating disease process.

 

By some estimates, diabetes has increased more than 700 percent in the

last 50 years. What does this tell you about the advice you've been given and

the direction you've been led in by conventional medicine?

 

There's no doubt in my mind that if government agencies and the medical

community would do the right thing; i.e. stop catering to the greedy demands of

the industries of sugar, grain and pharmaceuticals, and start issuing

recommendations that actually promote health rather than deteriorating it

further, this modern epidemic would be curbed in fairly short order.

 

The 2007 Stats on Diabetes

 

The latest statistics on diabetes indicate that the U.S. now has as many

as 24 million people with diabetes, or 8 percent of our total population.

 

Juvenile-onset (type 1) diabetes accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all

diagnosed cases of diabetes, with adult-onset (type 2) accounting for the

remaining 90 to 95 percent.

 

However, a closer look shows that the situation is more bizarre than that,

because the average of 8 percent includes all age groups, including children

under the age of 10, where the disease rate is still very low.

 

When you look at the numbers of adults aged 20 and over, the incidence

rate is almost 11 percent. And when you look at seniors aged 60 and up, the

prevalence is over 23 percent! That's pretty incredible.

 

(Add to that the fact that the average senior (65+) is on 28

pharmaceutical drugs and it's no wonder so few people live more than a decade

past their retirement.)

 

The statistics are even more grim when it comes to the prevalence of

pre-diabetes (impaired fasting glucose).

 

Almost 26 percent of U.S. adults over the age of 20 are pre-diabetics, and

more than 35 percent of seniors, 60 and older. In total, that's 57 million

Americans walking around with pre-diabetes, in addition to the 24 million that

have already crossed the line.

 

According to the population clock on the U.S. Census Bureau's web site,

the U.S. currently has just over 304,554,800 people. So, by my calculations

we're looking at a total of just over 26.5 percent of the entire U.S. population

having either pre-diabetes, or some form of diabetes.

 

Wow.

 

Folks, this is no accident. These kinds of statistics clearly show that

we're actively being led astray.

 

You must understand and accept that aside from the juvenile-onset variety

(which is relatively rare), type 2 diabetes is 100 percent preventable AND

reversible by some fairly simple lifestyle changes, all of which are outlined

and discussed in detail in my Total Health Program.

 

Many of the conventional recommendations for treating diabetes are simply

wrong, and I discussed the reasons why in this previous article. If you missed

it, or need a refresher, please review it again.

 

Why is Diabetes Such a Dangerous Disease?

 

Diabetes has become so common that many don't even bat an eyelash anymore.

It's almost as if diabetes has become " ok. " Just take your meds and you'll be

fine.

 

Not so!

 

Aside from the potentially deadly side effects of diabetes drugs, which

I've covered in previous articles, the additional health complications that

diabetes fosters are multiple, and quite serious, including:

 

a.. Heart disease and stroke - Death from heart disease and risk for

stroke is two to four times higher among people with diabetes

b.. High blood pressure - 75 percent of diabetics have high blood

pressure (130/180 mm Hg or higher)

c.. Blindness -- Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness

among adults aged 20 to 74 years

d.. Kidney disease - Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure. In

2005, more than 45,700 people began treatment for end-stage kidney disease in

the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and another 178,700 were living on chronic dialysis

e.. Nervous system disease -- About 60 to 70 percent of people with

diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage such as: impaired

sensation or pain in hands or feet, poor digestion, carpal tunnel syndrome and

erectile dysfunction

f.. Amputations - In 2004, 71,000 lower limb amputations due to diabetes

were performed in the U.S.

g.. Dental disease -- Almost one-third of people with diabetes have

severe periodontal disease

h.. Pregnancy complications -- Poorly controlled diabetes before

conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy among women with type 1

diabetes can cause major birth defects in 5 to 10 percent of pregnancies, and

spontaneous abortions in 15 to 20 percent of pregnancies

Putting a Price Tag on Diabetes

 

There's yet another updated study that warrants mentioning here: the

American Diabetes Association's (ADA) study on Economic Cost of Diabetes in the

U.S. in 2007.

 

The total estimated cost of diabetes in the U.S. in 2007 tallies up to

$174 billion. This includes $ 116 billion in excess (read: unnecessary) medical

expenditures, and $58 billion in reduced national productivity.

 

Having diabetes not only plunders your health, but your pocketbook too.

People with diagnosed diabetes incur an average medical expense of $11,744 per

year, almost 2.5 times higher than those who do not have diabetes.

 

Follow the Bread Crumbs

 

The concept that diabetes is NOT a blood sugar disease is one that I keep

striving to make well-known. As you can see by the numbers above, understanding

the TRUE underlying cause of diabetes has the potential to save hundreds of

thousands, even millions, of lives.

 

Type 2 diabetes is a disease caused by insulin resistance and faulty

leptin signaling, both of which are regulated through your diet.

 

Until that concept becomes well-known in both the medical community and by

the public at large, the misconception about what diabetes is and the

appropriate way to treat it will continue to be promoted.

 

Conventional treatment that is focused on fixing the symptom of elevated

blood sugar, rather than addressing the underlying disease, is doomed to fail in

most cases. Treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar while

raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem

of metabolic miscommunication. It just trades one evil for another.

 

Since most treatments for type 2 diabetes utilize drugs that either raise

insulin or lower blood sugar, the tragic result is that the typical,

conventional medical treatment for diabetes contributes to the additional

diseases and the shortened lifespan that diabetics experience.

 

For the last 50 years or so, Americans have followed the dietary

recommendations of a high complex carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet.

 

As an example, WebMD; one of the most visited medical information sites on

the web, states that people with diabetes, who also have abnormal cholesterol

levels, would be well advised to follow a diet that calls for 50 to 60 percent

of your daily total calories to be in the form of carbohydrates.

 

That's absurd.

 

They also state that table sugar is okay, as long as you readjust your

medications to compensate appropriately (i.e. take more drugs to increase your

fat cell storage capacity). Using toxic artificial sweeteners in lieu of sugar

also gets the green light.

 

Folks, many of these recommendations are not based on what's nutritionally

healthy. They're based on industry lobbying - just like the USDA's Food Pyramid,

which is fraught with industry conflicts of interest.

 

The proof is in the pudding as they say, and concomitant with the standard

nutritional recommendations the incidence of diabetes and obesity has

skyrocketed, and has become one of the worst epidemics the world has ever seen.

 

Eating a high " complex " carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet for health

and longevity has been shown to be wrong. Minimal common sense would say to try

something else.

 

How to Avoid Becoming a Statistic

 

Getting appropriate and regular amounts of exercise, and adopting an

eating plan that emphasizes good fats, and reduced non-fiber carbohydrates and

starches as outlined in my Total Health Program, can place you on the right

path. Doing so will greatly improve and even reverse type 2 " insulin resistant "

diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, many other chronic diseases of aging, all

without the use of potentially dangerous drugs.

 

 

 

Related Articles:

 

 

How to Finally Make Type 2 Diabetes Disappear

 

Nutritional Typing Prevents and Cures Diabetes

 

The Diabetes Conundrum: What Physicians are Teaching You may be Killing You

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

The maximum gauge for determining if you are a diabetic was 125 a few years

ago.  Now they  have brought this down to 70-112!!!  Of course there will be

more diabetics due to the lowering of the gauge. Same with cholesterol, it used

to be 250 before lipitor was discovered. then they brought it down to 200.  So

people are on lipitor.

Melly