Skip to main content

Health Horror Shows--Sequels Even Worse!!

The recent health news double-feature was really scary:

Then came the even-more-shocking news on the “sequels”:
  1. For adults: “Severe obesity is likely to become the most common BMI category among...low-income adults”-- close to 1 in 3 >75-100 pounds overweight by 2030--when about 50% of adults will be obese nationwide.
  2. For teens with prediabetes:  “However, compared with adults, decline in β-cell function seems to occur at an accelerated rate resulting in relative insulin deficiency and progression to overt type 2 diabetes with insulin treatment needed to control hyperglycemia within a few years after diagnosis.”
Let us be clear what this means:
  • High child obesity (~20% nationally now) is leading to very high adult obesity (40% now, going to 50%+) and severe obesity (1 in 12 adults now, going to 1 in 4 in 2030).
  • Unlike typical adult-onset diabetes in the past, which is often treated with metformin or other oral drugs initially--teen prediabetes can progress quickly to adult diabetes requiring insulin injections.
  • There's a good reason for the term "diabesity": obese adults have >2x higher risk of diabetes--and apparently this risk increases even more with age & obesity duration.
  • The bottom line: widespread early inactivity & unhealthy nutrition is creating an ever-growing ever-earlier-onset diabesity tsunami later in life.  
Yet the health sector is unsure what to do about unprecedented levels of teen prediabetes.  Much teen prediabetes remains undiagnosed--probably the same with young adult diabetes.  Certainly, not enough steps are being taken early among youth to postpone diabetes onset.   

While undiagnosed diabetes may “save” 50% short-term by postponing treatment costs, this increases the risk of serious side-effects from untreated diabetes. And these downsides are much more expensive, and terrifying, than treatment including: neuropathy, gangrene & amputations; permanent vision loss; and heart & kidney disease.

Finally, a reminder: diabesity is caused overwhelmingly by inactivity & unhealthy nutrition.  While treatment is better than non-treatment, prevention is best of all.  

[Note: bold/italics/underlines mine.]



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Citizen-ready civics: the powerful synergy of knowledge plus engagement

Boy, am I an infrequent blogger!  I do want to assure you, though, that I am alive and working on our focus areas.  In particular, there is a window of opportunity opening in the "life-ready" area in Arizona.   The Arizona Department of Health Services has recently determined, after a comprehensive statewide review process, that obesity is the number one health issue facing Arizona.  Other preventable chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes were also identified as major AZ health issues. Furthermore, we already know that four of the five root causes of the vast majority of these conditions are unhealthy nutrition, lack of physical activity, smoking, and excess drinking.  (Genetics plays a role as well, but healthy behavior can often trump genetics.)   At the same time, a number of organizations and individuals are frustrated by the increasing narrowing of our public K-12 education, and the dire consequences of downplaying social studies and health educ

Is it a “Miracle Drug”?...if it Costs a Fortune and Creates Lifelong Dependency...&...Saggy Faces!?

[It’s been a while since our last blog post.  A lot has happened since– including some “miracles” ! So we’re going to do two posts in a row…] Normally we should all be happy about miracle drugs... shouldn't we ? Yes, there is lots of upside from taking semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy), tirzepatide (Montjaro)--and upcoming new, even-more-miraculous drugs TBD:  losing huge amounts of weight quickly, a much lower risk of diabetes–and probably less heart disease and other chronic conditions as well.  But what if the “miracle” requires:   $200-300/week, with a lifetime cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars…  a drug that you can never quit…because if you stop taking it, you gain back all the weight it helped you lose–not to mention the chronic diseases which the drugs kept at bay… and it leaves your face (and the rest of your skin?) sagging …    (plus, it’s so new at such high dosages– who knows what happens after years of use…? ) No doubt, in spite of this--many people with severe obesi

Award for working with Arizona's physical & health education teachers!

Much appreciated receiving the Presidential Award from Arizona Health and Physical Education in November for our advocacy work with them.  We are making progress on increasing school recess time and adding physical and health education points to the state's A-F school accountability formula.  I love working with our dedicated PE and health ed teachers and the hard-working Association leadership to get kids more active and developing healthier habits!