Dire warning: diabetes will double and costs triple by 2034, but only if we don't prevent it

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 by: S. L. Baker, features writer
Tags: diabetes, health trends, health news

(NaturalNews) "This is the Voice of Doom speaking! Special bulletin! Flash! The sky is falling! A piece of it just hit you on the head! Now be calm. Don't get panicky. Run for your life!" That's a quote from the tricky con artist Foxy Loxy in the 1943 animated version of "Chicken Little", the classic children's story. But it has striking similarities to some breaking medical news.

According to a study by University of Chicago researchers published in the December issue of the journal Diabetes Care, over the next 25 years, the number of people in the US with diabetes will almost double, soaring from the 23.7 million who have the disease today to 44.1 million in 2034. What's more, spending on diabetes will virtually triple, rising from $113 billion to $336 billion, even if there's no further increase in the already unhealthy prevalence of obesity in this country.

Sound scary? The report gets worse. There will be disastrous economic consequences because of the huge burden the diabetes epidemic will place on the healthcare industry, too, the researchers predicted. The number of those with diabetes covered by Medicare will jump from 8.2 million to 14.6 million and Medicare spending on diabetes will increase from $45 billion to $171 billion.

"The public policy implications are enormous," said co-author Michael O'Grady, PhD, senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, in a statement to the media. "This a serious challenge to Medicare and every other health plan in the country."

How to change the future

The projections are alarming but the facts also show that this projected dire future can be changed. The rise in diabetes is expected to be primarily due to the type 2 variety. And there's good news -- type 2 diabetes is almost always preventable with natural, common sense health strategies that are not difficult and primarily involve eating healthy diets containing a lot of vegetables and fruits and giving up sedentary lifestyles.

The challenge is for people to understand they can -- and must -- take control of their own health and prevent type 2 diabetes. As Dr. O'Grady stated: "The cost of doing nothing is the significant increase in the pain and suffering of America's population and a financial burden that will threaten the financial viability of public and private insurers alike."

"If we don't change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find ourselves in a lot of trouble as a population," the study's lead author Elbert Huang, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said in the press statement.

NaturalNews has consistently reported on a host of evidence that type 2 diabetes can be prevented and treated naturally by weight control, regular exercise and effective, inexpensive and natural nutrition therapies. Here are some examples:

Cinnamon helps regulate blood sugar and may prevent diabetes (https://www.naturalnews.com/027168_cinnamon_d...).

Specific Chinese herbal remedies have been found to normalize blood sugar (https://www.naturalnews.com/027400_diabetes_p...).

The trace mineral chromium improves insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of diabetes (https://www.naturalnews.com/027398_chromium_d...).

The spice tumeric has anti-diabetes properties (https://www.naturalnews.com/024644.html).

Eating legumes can slash diabetes risk by 40% (https://www.naturalnews.com/023831.html).

Adding nuts to the Mediterranean style of eating treats the pre-diabetic condition known as metabolic syndrome (https://www.naturalnews.com/025098_nuts_medit...).

For more information:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/...