Type 2 Diabetes is the Perfect Disease

From the perspective of the healthcare industry, type 2 diabetes is the perfect disease. Unlike, say, pneumonia, which necessitates an antibiotic for 14 days and then it’s over, type 2 diabetes starts with one drug, then two, and then three or more, not to mention the drugs used for associated conditions, such as hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, eye diseases, and accelerated dementia. And all of these drugs are prescribed for years, often a lifetime (albeit shortened compared to those without diabetes), resulting in a pharmaceutical bonanza of profit. To the drug industry, diabetes is the gift that keeps on giving. Here are some sobering statistics: There are now 30 million people with type 2 diabetes in the United States, three times this number with prediabetes. Costs likewise are staggering: $176 billion in direct medical costs and $69 billion in reduced productivity every year. Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes adds, on average, $7,900 to an individual’s annual healthcare costs. (Before they smartened up, annual reports of publicly traded pharmaceutical companies gushed over the surge in people with type 2 diabetes, hailing the epidemic as an unprecedented opportunity for revenue growth. They recognized recently that this could become a publicity faux pas and stopped using boastful wording.) But there is a major oversight in all this: Type 2 diabetes is a disease of lifestyle and poor food choices and, to a lesser degree, inactivity, nutritional deficie...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Diabetes Undoctored Source Type: blogs