The level of care that diabetes patients receive in the United States falls far below current national recommendations. Diabetes is a serious disease, but most of the complications could be prevented or delayed with the appropriate treatment and interventions.
Diabetes care in the United States can be vastly improved and such improvement, may yield substantial health benefits.
Overall, only about 30% of the respondents had had their hemoglobin A1c, which measures long-term blood sugar control, tested during the previous 12 months and 18% of them had levels greater than 9.5%, indicating that their blood sugar was poorly controlled. Further, only about 4 in 10 respondents said they monitored their blood glucose level at least once every day.
Roughly one third of respondents reported having poorly controlled blood pressure, about 37% said they did not have annual dilated eye examinations and 45% said they did not undergo annual foot exams.
People with diabetes face a high risk of blindness, which is why they are urged to have eye exams annually. Foot exams are also crucial because people with diabetes can develop sores on their feet that can become infected and ultimately lead to the need for amputation.
"When applied to the estimated 7.9 million persons 18 to 75 years of age in the United States who have diagnosed diabetes, these statistics translated to an estimated.1.4 million persons with hemoglobin A1c levels greater than 9.5%, 2.7 million with uncontrolled blood pressure, 2.9 million without annual dilated eye examinations, and 3.6 million without annual foot examinations.
Annals of Internal Medicine April, 2002;136:565-574
It is unfortunate that conventional medicine is not only failing to do what they recommend to monitor diabetes, but, and far more tragically, that they are so ill informed on the foundational causes of type 2 (non-insulin dependent) diabetes.
An aggressive implementation of exercise and making the proper food choices (including substantial amounts of omega-3 oils) should help to control diabetes in the vast majority of people.
Some academics in conventional medicine understand this, and one of the top medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), proclaimed in May 2001 that it is possible to "cure" type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise.
I believe my comment from 2001 deserves repeating as a supplement to this article:
In the New England Journal study, dietary modifications were able to reduce the rate of diabetes by nearly 60 percent, and they did this without even understanding some of the most basic foundational truths of food choices. These investigators were absolutely clueless with respect to the influence of grain and sugar restriction on insulin optimization.
So, if the traditionally recommended low-fat diet can reduce diabetes by 60 percent, if you use the modified food choice program you can reduce type 2 diabetes by well over 95 percent.
Exercise is unquestionably also a big key here.
Considering that there are 15 million diabetics in the United States and the epidemic is continuing to increase in this country and worldwide (affected about 6 percent of persons in developed countries in 1995), this is important information.
Folks, believe me, you do not want to play around with diabetes. It is a devastating illness and will gradually suck the life out of you and contribute to a life full of miserable health complications. It is also one of the fastest ways to accelerate the aging process.
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