A recent study found the mortality rate for seniors over the age of 65 who suffer from diabetes has risen substantially. Among this age group, the mortality rate for those with diabetes was 10 percent annually, compared to 6 percent for non-diabetes sufferers.
Researchers were surprised by the findings because other studies led medical professionals to assume diabetes was far more prevalent in the deaths of younger people than seniors.
The study was based on a national sampling of about 150,000 Medicare claims in 1994 that included an equal number of diabetes sufferers and those who weren't afflicted. Over a five-year period, 40 percent of the patients with diabetes included in the survey died from all causes versus some 26 percent who did not have diabetes. Additionally, mortality for diabetes patients was higher in each subgroup through age 85.
The study reported the presence of diabetes increased the mortality rate of more than 60 percent of the African-Americans and 80 percent of the Caucasians surveyed. As a result, researchers recommended more studies be done on elderly patients with diabetes, especially because few clinical trials have included them.
One current clinical study is recruiting patients up to 80 years old.
Science Daily May 25, 2004
Not surprisingly, the hospital that conducted this survey came to the same conclusion I've been advocating for some time: Weight loss and physical activity reduced the incidence of diabetes among people over 60 years by 71 percent. As I've said for a long while, diabetes is close to 90 percent preventable by making lasting changes in diet and lifestyle. No matter how late in the game it might be, the sooner you take action the easier the diabetes will be to control.
The basics begin with restricting all sugars and grains from your diet and increasing your exercise.
Diets geared to diabetics have emphasized including carbohydrates and fats to their diets. The problem: Conventional diets don't account for differences in nutritional type.
Nearly all type 2 diabetics need to swap out their grains for other foods, as I discuss in my Total Health Program. But depending on your own nutritional type, some will benefit from substituting grains for mostly proteins and fats, while others will need more vegetable-only carbohydrates.
So along with reducing grains and sugars, determining your nutritional type will give you some insight into what foods you should use to replace the grains and sugars.
And what about the estimated 17 million Americans who suffer in a "pre-diabetes" state, literally ranging from months to years away from a full-blown case of diabetes? If you belong to this category, it is essential that you make changes to your diet and exercise routine now, as pre-diabetes is far easier to turn around in the earlier stages than the later stages and achieving a healthy weight through diet and exercise can put most people on the road to reversing the disease.
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