Diabetes strategy should have a focus on prevention and not just treatment
Editor:
Diabetes Canada is appealing to us to urge our government to give them money. This appeal appeared in an eight page insert in the Global Mail on Saturday, November 3. I am not in support of that appeal. We need strategies that does the following: one, prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes; two, reverse the progression of this disease. I see no evidence that Diabetes Canada is offering us any such strategies.
In the meantime, various groups around the world are offering new strategies that does that. Several are reporting that people with Type 2 diabetes are lowering their Hba1c, body weight, and medicine use. A growing number of people with pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes are achieving a status of “currently not diabetic.”
These strategies are based on an emerging understanding that the current diabetes epidemic is driven by our current eating pattern, namely that we eat too often and too many carbohydrates. The result of this eating pattern is that our bodies too often have to deal with high levels of blood sugar and insulin. Those of us who are predisposed to Type 2 diabetes cannot tolerate such high levels. We become prediabetic. Then, if we continue to follow that eating pattern, we first develop Type 2 diabetes and, eventually, we diabetic complications.
The logical strategy to prevent the development of Type 2 Diabetes is to provide people with the knowledge, support, and tools to eat less often and to reduce the carbohydrates intake to the level their body can tolerate. Diabetes Canada is not offering this strategy.
Indeed, they do not offer any strategies that prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes or halt its progression. The current diabetic epidemic attests to that. Five million Canadians have diabetes. Six million are at risk of soon becoming diabetic. In turn, diabetics are at risk of developing diabetic complications. Diabetics are 25 times more likely to experience vision loss; 12 times more likely to be hospitalized for kidney failure needing dialysis; three times more likely to be hospitalized for heart attach, stroke and heart failure; 20 times more likely to be hospitalized for not-traumatic toe, foot, and leg amputations. In addition to human suffering, this epidemic will result in an immense strain on our health care system.
We sorely need strategies that does the following: one, prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes; two, reverse the progression of this disease. At the moment we have at least one such option. There are groups that are willing and able to provide us with the knowledge, support, and tools we need in order to peruse a lifestyle of eating less often and reducing the carbohydrates intake to the level our bodies can tolerate. Let’s use our tax money to support such groups.
In the meantime, for those who are interested in pursuing the strategies based on the understanding that diabetes is driven by our current eating pattern of eating too often and too many carbohydrates, such information is available on numerous web sites. For a Canadian option, go to “Intensive Dietary Management” (idmprogram.com). Other examples are “dietdoctor.com,” “Virta Health.com,” “thenoakesfoundation.org”, and “Diabetes. co.uk.”