UKC

In the past year alone 130,000 more people were diagnosed with diabetes. And there may be as many as almost a million who have not been diagnosed yet.

The vast majority are Type 2 Diabetics.

http://www.counselheal.com/articles/4180/20130304/3-million-people-diagnose...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21630812

Quite scary.

In reply to The Lemming:

yeah, and it's not just the fatties, Sir Ranulf just got diagnosed with it (hence frostbite and pulling out of the antarctic expedition!)

In reply to Ed Navigante:

I never knew that 10% of the NHS budget goes to Diabetic conditions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21584598

In reply to Ed Navigante:

Maybe it tells a lot about the population's sugar consumption? You don't need to be a fatty to be a sugar junkie, and if anything I see just as many fit people horsing sugar down their necks. The ability of someone's body to burn of the calories through exercise is not directly related to the effect of sugar and how it is procsssed by the body.

In reply to The Lemming:

The costs of treatment are massive. I believe it costs in the region £1 Million a year to keep me (Type 1) alive. More and more money though is being pumped into research to find a cure, as it is going to be cheaper in the long run. There have been some pretty impressive breakthroughs in the last few years.

In reply to K.W.:

It never ceases to impress me about the power of sugar on somebody having a hypo.

I truly find it amazing, every time I watch somebody recover from a hypo, simply from the effects of sugar being absorbed into their body.

In reply to K.W.:

That can't be right - how do you get to that figure? As a starting point, a night in hospital is about £750, an appointment with a consultant is about £200 and a GP appointment is £36. Your monitors and drugs can't cost more than about £50 a day, I don't think. I'd be surprised if you hit the NHS budget as hard as you think.

In reply to The Lemming: My father was diagnosed with type 2 about 12 years ago. At the time he was overweight, ate too much, too richly, had a high power, high stress job. It would be fair to say it's one of the best things that's happened to him. Now granted the job went cause he decided to retire. Though other than that it's made him have to watch what he eats and how much exercise he gets and regulate his lifestyle. In the meantime he's lost something like 5 stone and is vastly healthier for it. Basically being diagnosed, with type 2 atleast, diabetes shouldn't really affect you or cost the state massively provided your are a responsible person. In these cases the net end result can often be a positive one.

The main issue really is that most of the kind of people that get type 2 diabetes. Either don't know they have it as they aren't conscious of what they do to their bodies and the health affects of same or even if they do know they've gotten it don't have enough self control/give enough of shit to deal with it. Unfortunately it's these people that are the major drain on health services. Due to the way they lead their lives if it wasn't diabetes it would be something else that they've gotten that ends up doing the damage and costing the money. So whilst diabetes is a massive drain on resources I think it's more to do with the lifestyles of the people who catch it, rather than the disease itself.

In reply to The Lemming:

My partner works for Big Pharma in an area that largely focuses on working with the NHS on diabetes education and reduction, which some out there might consider something of a counterintuitive move for a drug company.

I've watched a couple of friends manage Type 1 ('juvenile') diabetes with varying levels of success. I think more education is needed about Type 2 diabetes - many people out there need more support than Frank4Short's dad in making lifestyle changes. Horrible disease.

In reply to Ed Navigante:

Not everybody who gets Type 2 Diabetes is a sugar guzzling obese lardass but they tend to be seen so and are in danger of becoming stigmatised.

My wife was diagnosed with it nearly 15 years ago despite being relatively fit and eating healthily; her family has a history of diabetes.

Steve Redgrave is another famous case of who developed Diabetes

In reply to Hat Dude:

Not everybody, but the vast majority. When my wife volunteered in a hospital she met people who had lost feet and hands because of diabetes. In one of the more disquieting cases the patient begged my wife to bring her some candy. Even though she had lost both feet to diabetes.

In reply to wilding:

I think you've reinforced my point about stigmatising

The huge increase in Type 2 is down to the "obesity epidemic" and it's hard to be sympathetic about people who are diagnosed and then do sfa about it but there are other reasons for the disease.

In reply to Hat Dude: There is more than a hint of "Good" AIDS and "Bad" AIDS" From Brass Eye going on with diabetes

youtube.com/watch?v=kFNs2mOkKzc&

In reply to The Lemming:

You're being too parochial, diabetes has been labelled " The epedemic of the 21st century" .. and a great business opportunity (why I know about it).

"•Based on 2005 figures, at least 171 million people worldwide have diabetes. This number is expected to double by the year 2030."

http://www.hope4diabetes.info/general-information/diabetes-a-worldwide-epid...

In reply to K.W.:

In 2012, Type 1 diabetes cost the NHS about £1bn, and there are about 300000 people with Type 1 diabetes, so the average cost is a bit more than £3000 per year - you're not quite as expensive as you thought!

In reply to toad:

I'm a good boy, i've got type 1. Hmmm.

5 Years in my health checks have been okay, a small blip one time, but ok overall.

In reply to Tall Clare:

It does make you focus somewhat, getting to grips with becoming type1 diabetic.

Quite right, I am getting my figures crossed.

Just quickly looked through a paper I wrote last year. £1 Million is the cost of diabetes PER HOUR, according to figures from last year.

Just done a quick search and it seems to have increased since...

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/cost-of-diabetes.html

In reply to Hat Dude:

Quite right. I didn't know I had it and was relieved when it was diagnosed when I went to the docs about something else, although the first doctor had me down for all sorts of stuff that I could not possibly have. However i take 2 tabelets a day and watch what I eat. It's those who take no notice of the "education" and continue to eat lard sandwiches with sugar cake all day that are the problem. They clog up the waiting rooms at the doctors because they won't do anything about their eating habits.
I fall by he wayside now and again, but I deal with it.

In reply to Co1in H:

What does lard have to do with diabetes? All the current research shows that a diet higher in fats is better for diabetes.

* My old boy is diabetic, as is his sister.

In reply to Hat Dude:

Yes and he openly admits that he eat a stupid amount of sugar and carbohydrates to feed his high energy lifestyle. He attempted to reduce his sugar intake but found he could not perform athletically as well. So I am not sure of what the point you are making is? Just because he was an athlete does not mean his diet was not full of shite. I have a friend who plays professional football and he lives on Haribo sweets. All day when he isnt training he is filling his face with Haribos. Being an athlete and good a good diet are not the same thing.

In reply to Milesy:The first thing I was asked when I went about being type 1 diabetic was had I been very stressed, and I had been, as it turned out. Seemed like there was a pattern they'd noticed at my local diabetes centre.

In reply to Timmd:

Same here. I remember being very stressed in the months beforehand.

In reply to Milesy: well diabetes makes you prone to heart problems, so the more fats you eat the more chance you get the problems, it also furrs up your arteries so letting less blood go to your feet so more chance in loosing them, also reduced blood circulation means that cuts and infections don't heal as quickly, also a way of loosing your feet and legs. And also a way of getting diabetic keyto acidosis (DKA) which means your blood turns to an acid which then makes all your organs collapse, not very nice for anyone at all (ask me how I know that!)
So fats/smoking/no excercise is not good for a diabetic

Oh yeah I'm a diabetic, been one for over 10 years, I do have poor control, but that is also down to how the docs have treated me (or haven't) I have complications, I also take insulin, 2 long lasting jabs and as many times as I eat rapid jabs, plus they don't know if I'm type 1 or 2

In reply to Timmd: they don't really know how it gets turned on in people, I've heard stress, a virus, hereditary, a heavy knock (like a car crash), eating too much sugar, allsorts

John

In reply to Hat Dude: so not the fact of immigration, the fact that people move from a healthier diet/lifestyle where they eat food they've grown without additives and walk for food/water, then come here buy a car to pop to mcDonalds/ tesco to buy rubbish food

In reply to VwJap:

AFAIK it's not sugar which makes your immune system start to attack your pancreas, which is what's involved in type 1. Type 1 is the hereditary kind of diabetes.

In reply to K.W.:

I think it's changed how I approach things to some degree, the idea that being stressed may have played a part in triggering it.

I obviously do still get stressed and worry, but it's in my thoughts that it's bad for me too so I try not to be like that.

In reply to K.W.:

I think it's changed how I approach things to some degree, the idea that being stressed may have played a part in triggering it.

I obviously do still get stressed and worry sometimes, but it's in my thoughts that it's bad for me too so I try not to be like that.

In reply to Milesy:

Put simply, fat cells are bad for type 2 diabetes. The more you have, the worse your condition is likely to be. Therefore, eating too much (of anything) is likely to be bad for diabetes.

In reply to Timmd:

There can also be a hereditary factor with Type 2

In reply to VwJap:

Although it is still not clear whether the fat clotting the arteries comes directly from fat that is ingested or in fact from excess sugar that is ingested and turned to fat stores by the body. This is the direction a lot of research seems to be pointing at the moment, hence the comments from others that it is is fact sugar and carbs that are bad.

At the same time sugar spikes (that you simply don't get eating fat) course the deterioation towards insulin resistence, so again sugar and carbs are bad, not fat!!

In reply to Milesy: Lard sandwiches sound good. Going to do 160 miles on my bike over the next two days and seriously considering taking a lard butty now... Won't be taking any sugar though.

BW