@A DiabetesTeam Member these are combined stats from the US/UK/Canada

A few more stats:

60% of all diabetics live in Asia

The 5 highest rates of diabetes "in Asia" are (% of population)

Pakistan - 30.8% (almost 1 in every 3 people)
Malaysia - 19.0%
Papua New Guinea - 16.7%
Bangladesh - 14.2%, and
Singapore - 11.6%

Compared to the US - 12.5%, UK 8.2% "pre covid" (estimated closer to 12 now but the stats are not in), Canada 11% (with an estimate that an additional 5% are undiagnosed)

Nobody is doing even an adequate job of educating to try and prevent this

We need somebody to stop worrying about hurting peoples feelings and start a WAR on OVERWEIGHT and OBESITY if we want to push these numbers down

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A Diabete...

@A DiabetesTeam Member thats a slippery slope to deny services to the obese will they do the same to heart patience or diabetics. Or not treat asthma if you own a pet. Their motivation is money not health! Pretty frightening.

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A Diabete...

I wouldn’t think that a1c 7%. is controlled If it was then I’d be laughing and I’m not.

Also is it an either/or as regards meds?

How many will happily take extra meds with increasing side effects or risk insulin therapy rather than take the hard road of losing weight and consistent exercise (whether that be walking etc/gym)?

My aim is not to increase meds but to reduce meds through very low carb consumption and quite a bit of exercise with two sessions a week in the gym, one long walk (16-18 miles), and 3 sessions on my exercise bike at home, per week.

Now, I’ve not been consistent with this hence my average weekly blood glucose is around 7.0 to 8.0 (I’ve not calculated the averages recently so it could be more) but the figures are trending down.

So in my opinion there is an alternative to increased meds and that alternative should be thoroughly investigated and tested before accepting there is no other option.

@A DiabetesTeam Member it certainly is but I also do understand the reasoning

For example, in Ontario, with our socialized medicine (you can NOT opt for private - doesn't matter if you have good insurance or you can pay you get in the line with everyone else unless I go to the U.S.) the wait time for a hip replacement (as an example cited in the UK) is "estimated" to be 6 months from the time "you need it"

It can take upwards of a year to get the MRI before they would even determine you need it AND in reality I personally know a couple individuals that have been waiting over a year "on list" for the surgery

The pitfalls of Socialized Medicine - there is never enough money or enough resources

So given that - much the same way that they vet organ transplant patients - giving something that is in limited quantities to those that are best able to recover and will live a lifestyle that will protect that transplant - make it "worthwhile" it may creep into other procedures

And if there is two people in need of hip replacement and one is Obese which would not only complicate the surgery but also increase the chance of infection or severely slow recovery time or whatever they see as the issue should the surgery Not be offered to the person "first" who has statistically a better chance of success, successful recovery and better (use) of the limited resource

Just making the argument

Should we give a Kidney Transplant to an uncontrolled Diabetic, whose total disregard for sugar control, who regularly doesn't take their meds and eats like a Hog is what caused the Kidney failure in the first place

Do we simply give them another one to destroy?

Or do you give it to somebody who will at least try and take care of it????

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A Diabete...

I’m not sure education will work unless we address the various cultures we live in.

The bottom line is that we don’t want to know. Even after 28 years of being a diabetic I get blind spots.

There’s very little I don’t know about the dangers of poor control of blood glucose and yet I’m sometime maybe often still in the danger zone.

I KNOW I need to get my blood glucose weekly averages below 6.5 (117) and yet sometimes or more recently often my averages are greater than 6.5 (117).

I KNOW I need to exercise 5-6 days a week (a mix of walking, gym and exercise bike at home) and yet I sometimes/often don’t achieve it.

I KNOW I must eat very low carb every meal and yet often I exceed that target either by a bit or sometimes a mile.

“Cut yourself some slack” the siren voices say but diabetes is ruthless and will destroy us unless properly managed. It’s as simple as that.

So using myself as a example there seems little chance that education on diabetes will have any significant effect on the horrific statistics that detail the neuropathy, kidney disease, stroke, heart failure, blindness and amputations that are part of life for many diabetics.

So is there a way out of this?

Is something better than nothing or is that a dangerous cop out?

Maybe a form of a boot camp to train us might the answer.