Paul W. Barada
Guest Columnist
June 30, 2008 11:16 am
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I heard a disturbing statistic the other day I’d like to pass along to you. Did you know that over 23 million people in the United States have diabetes? And that between 2005 and 2007 the number of people who were diagnosed with the disease had increased by 13.5 percent? Even more disturbing is that something like 24 percent of the people who have the disease don’t know it. Using the most recent data, in 2002 nearly 225,000 people died as a result of the disease, and even more probably died of diabetes because studies suggest it’s under-reported on death certificates, especially among older people who have other chronic conditions like heart disease and hypertension caused by diabetes.
The most distressing fact, however, is that diabetes is caused by obesity and lack of exercise in fully half the new cases of the disease diagnosed each year! And that’s not counting the complications caused by diabetes. The disease is associated with increased risks of several life threatening complications including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, diseases of the nervous system, amputations, and dental disease.
Aside from the foregoing problems and the suffering they cause, the direct and indirect costs associated with diabetes are astronomical. According to the American Diabetes Association, the total annual economic cost of diabetes in 2007 was estimated to be $174 billion dollars. Medical expenditures alone totaled $116 billion and were comprised of $27 billion for diabetes care, $58 billion for chronic diabetes-related complications and $31 billion for excess general medical costs.
In addition to the lives lost, the untold suffering and the costs associated with the disease, there is another side to this epidemic that has to be stressed and underlined three or four times. Fully half of the new cases diagnosed each year could be eliminated if people simply took better care of themselves. As mentioned earlier, half of all the new cases of diabetes are caused by obesity and lack of exercise. That means, over 12 month’s time, 112,000 lives could be saved; that’s over 9,000 deaths per month that don’t have to happen. That’s unimaginable suffering and death that could be avoided by tens of thousands of people each year.
Why does it continue to go on? To be blunt, it’s because way too many people eat way too much and never exercise at all. If you’ve ever gone to any of the popular buffet restaurants that dot the countryside and really look at the people who frequent them you’ll see more morbidly obese people than you’ve ever seen in your life. Without much effort at all it’s not difficult to look around and see people with hip, knee, and ankle problems, most of which are a direct function of how much excess weight they’re asking their bodies to carry around. Also notice the number of buffet dwellers who require motorized wheel chairs to get around. It’s not that they can’t walk; it’s nothing more than being too heavy to walk more than a few steps at a time.
A huge multi-million dollar industry has sprung up offering an endless number of ways for people to lose weight. Millions have been spent on home exercise equipment — stationary bikes, tread mills, weight-lifting apparatus — that in far too many instances is never used and ends up collecting dust in the garage or the basement. Really losing weight and really exercising requires willpower, which not enough people seem to have, but lacking that willpower creates a genuine life-threatening risk. To underscore the magnitude of the problem, as the price of aviation fuel goes up the airlines are actually considering charging obese people more for their ticket than thinner people, in much the same way that they’re charging more for extra luggage; it’s extra weight the plane has to carry which uses more fuel! It’s almost obscene to compare people to luggage, but that’s how serious the problem is.
While we’re at it, think about all the places people can go for various services and never get out of their cars. Banks, fast food restaurants and drug stores immediately come to mind. Places of business with drive-up services, while catering to the laziness of their customers, are adding to the problem. We’ve reached a sorry point when people are unwilling to walk that extra 50 or 60 feet to actually go inside their bank or their drugstore. Even that much exercise would be better than just sitting behind the wheel.
While it’s obviously possible to harp on the natural human tendencies to over-eat and to constantly sit on the sofa, what’s not being considered is the price gluttony and sloth are causing in human misery. Half of all diabetics wouldn’t be suffering from that terrible disease if they had taken better care of themselves.
It’s also natural to insist upon the right to eat as much and sit as much as we, as free people, choose to sit and eat. What’s wrong, even from a selfish perspective, is that asserting those rights creates a 50-50 chance the outcome will be diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, dental disease, and amputations, particularly of portions of the legs. It’s particularly sad when the solution is much less painful, figuratively and literally, than the problem.
That’s —30— for this week.
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