Health Reform: Diabetes and the Sum of Hopes and Fears

Nobly-intentioned health reform – affordable, accessible, effective care for all- sums up hopes and fears of all humankind.

Hopes that care is there for all, fears that care will not be there. But these hopes and fears are always dashed by the reality that only so much resources are available to satisfy these hopes and fears.  Demands always exceed supply.

Common Sense

Sooner or later, reality  and common sense generally kicks in.

Take the problem of the obesity –diabetes- and their chronic disease aftermaths, a prevalent chronic disease epidemic.  In America,  100 million of us are obese,  29 million have diabetes, and 86 million have pre-diabetes.   That’s 215 million,  one-third of our population of 320 million.

More Expensive Approaches

We are taking steps to address this problem – through a flurry of  weight-loss programs,  bariatric surgery programs, the fitness mania, and the development of a host of diabetic drugs.  All of these approaches are expensive.

Low Cost Low Carbohydrate Diet

But suddenly common sense is beginning to rear its head.    Various diabetic programs are showing you can treat your diabetes are simply changing to a low carbohydrate diet – by eating meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, high fat dairy products, and root plants – rather than sugar-laden foods, pasta,  bread,  processed foods, and all those carbohydrate-rich snacks.

Source:  Sarah Hallberg, MD, and Osama Hamda,  MD, Indiana University and Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard,  “The Old-Fashioned Way to Treat Diabetes: It’s Cheaper thatn $26,000 Weight-Loss Surgery and Probably More Effective, “ New York Times, September 11, 2016