Diabetes cases soar by 60% in the last decade (BBC)

Why do they seem so clueless as to what to do to reduce costs to the NHS?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33932930

I sent the following comment to the article

What's most shocking in my view as a Type 2 diabetic is the frequent lack of understanding of the condition by HCPs, especially when so much money is being spent on drugs and treatment of complications.  Promotion of the Eatwell plate and eating carbohydrates is simply bonkers for a diabetic.  You want to reduce money spent on T2 in the NHS?  Get patients to eat a low-carb diet that doesn't impact blood sugar levels so much - we don't need carbs, the liver will produce enough glucose to feed the brain.  I've got my HbA1c back to non-diabetic levels on low-carb diet and exercise alone, lost 20 kg in weight and I have no intention in burdening the NHS with drug and complication treatment costs thank you.


Low-carb is also good for T1 diabetics, reducing the amount of insulin they need.


Obesity doesn't cause T2 by the way - it's a metabolic condition, there are many obese people who will never get diabetes and plenty of thin, fit people who do.  It's often the condition that causes the obesity not the other way round.


But watch out, the drugs companies hate people like me who treat themselves because they like the condition to be progressive - they can sell more metformin, gliclazide, insulin and the rest and then all the drugs to treat the complications.  It doesn't have to be that way.


So NICE - drop the Eatwell plate, get the drugs companies off your back and train HCPs and patients alike on low carbohydrate diets.


My invoice is in the post ...

Brilliant Rod! Thanks, you said what I wanted to say, but you said it so much better than I could.

Nice work Rod but not NICE. Don't forget the British Dietetic Association have no dietary recommendations of their own. The Chairperson of the BDA told me that directly as reported here and on our blog. They get their info from Diabetes UK who get large amounts of money from big pharma. Thus we have the present situation of greed and profit at the financial and poor health costs to the patients. In my opinion DUK are not only not fit for purpose, they are making the diabetes epidemic much worse. I see Baroness Young has stepped down recently, and her job has been taken by someone who knows zilch about diabetes, but he does know about rattling the tin to bring in the money.

Stepped down??? She was on TV just now bleating.

They should hack off her feet and poke out her eyes and say THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Forgot to say, great post Rod! The only thing worth adding is that Dr David Unwin reckons to save £15 000 - £30 000/year by doing so. If all GPs did this drug companies would make massive losses. It might be a good plan to take the saved money and use it to subsidise farmers.

Did you see this crap, linked to from the above BBC page

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-eat-diabetes-top-10-tips

chris c wrote:
Did you see this crap, linked to from the above BBC page

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-eat-diabetes-top-10-tips

Well I agree with point 10!

chris c wrote:Stepped down??? She was on TV just now bleating.

They should hack off her feet and poke out her eyes and say THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Diabetes UK has today announced that Chris Askew will join the organisation as its new Chief Executive.

He will take up the role on 14 September, taking over from Barbara Young who has led the charity over the last five years.

In his new role Chris will lead the charity, which had a turnover of £41.8 million in 2014 and employs over 380 people, in its mission to improve life for everyone affected by and at risk of diabetes.

Chris has excellent experience in the charity sector, working most recently as Chief Executive at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, having initially joined the organisation as Director of Fundraising. Here he oversaw considerable growth in income, charitable spend and profile and then negotiated the ground breaking merger to form Breast Cancer Now. Prior to that he held senior management fundraising positions at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Crisis and Action for Children.

Info from here https://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/News/Diabetes-UK-appoints-Chris-Askew-as-Chief-Executive/

chris c wrote:Forgot to say, great post Rod! The only thing worth adding is that Dr David Unwin reckons to save £15 000 - £30 000/year by doing so. If all GPs did this drug companies would make massive losses. It might be a good plan to take the saved money and use it to subsidise farmers.

Did you see this crap, linked to from the above BBC page

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-eat-diabetes-top-10-tips

Unsurprisingly the crap is credited to a dietitian who also works for DUK 

By Douglas Twenefour - Clinical advisor at Diabetes UK

chris c wrote:Forgot to say, great post Rod! The only thing worth adding is that Dr David Unwin reckons to save £15 000 - £30 000/year by doing so. If all GPs did this drug companies would make massive losses. It might be a good plan to take the saved money and use it to subsidise farmers.

Did you see this crap, linked to from the above BBC page

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-eat-diabetes-top-10-tips

Thanks Chris - yeah I did see that, didn't know whether to laugh or cry ...

Eddie wrote:

Diabetes UK has today announced that Chris Askew will join the organisation as its new Chief Executive.

He will take up the role on 14 September, taking over from Barbara Young who has led the charity over the last five years.

So I wonder which drug companies will offer her directorships?

Let's not be to harsh on DUK  they do offer a variety of diets to cover most eventualities no LC though they do have a Low sugar diet

• Special diet

  
  

• Gluten free
  
  
• Dairy free
  
  
• Nut free
  
  
• Vegan
  
  
• Vegetarian
  
  
• Low fat
  
  
• Low sugar
  
  

 https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/

Of course low sugar does not always equate to low carb check out their LS recipes some may be acceptable but many are a no no for type two's.

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/Recipe-Search-Results/?tag=Low+sugar

It always hugerly amuses me whenn dieticians are so adamant that low carb diets are really really bad because they cut out an entire food group . . . then they go on to support vegetarian/veganism . . .

Another kicking from the press for T2 diabetics. It's all over the news but here is The Guardian's take on the "obese and lazy" ! Grr, let's get the public against diabetics so we can cut spending without a backlash ! What do you guys think ? Link here:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/26/obesity-and-sedentary-lives-put-5m-britons-at-risk-of-type-2-diabetes

So, four out of five T2 diabetics are fat, but then three out of five of the general population are a bit on the tubby side, so hardly a clear and fast correlation. Just a bit of a tendency towards T2's being on the porky side - but then which came first, the insulin resistance or the excess flab?

OK, so here's a thought to put the cat amongst the pigeons (and get me banned!): If spending on T2 was greatly reduced, would people have to look after themselves? If the automatic solution wasn't a prescription, but proper dietary information and then people taking responsibility for their own health, millions could be saved. Just a discussion point.
Sally

Sally wrote:So, four out of five T2 diabetics are fat, but then three out of five of the general population are a bit on the tubby side, so hardly a clear and fast correlation.  Just a bit of a tendency towards T2's being on the porky side - but then which came first, the insulin resistance or the excess flab?

OK, so here's a thought to put the cat amongst the pigeons (and get me banned!):  If spending on T2 was greatly reduced, would people have to look after themselves?  If the automatic solution wasn't a prescription, but proper dietary information and then people taking responsibility for their own health, millions could be saved.  Just a discussion point.
Sally

You raise a good point Sally ( not that I advocate it ). If the only way to manage diabetes was to increase activity and reduce carbs, rather than dose up, I wonder how many would actually stick with it ! Pretty sure I would !

I see it the other way round, if diabetics were told how to control it in the first place the drugs bill would be grossly reduced.

For that matter if the public in general were given better dietary advice there wouldn't BE an "epidemic" of diabetes in the first place. But then the foodlike substance manufacturing industry wouldn't be so profitable.

OMG I just read a load of the comments in the Grauniad.

chris c wrote:I see it the other way round, if diabetics were told how to control it in the first place the drugs bill would be grossly reduced.

For that matter if the public in general were given better dietary advice there wouldn't BE an "epidemic" of diabetes in the first place. But then the foodlike substance manufacturing industry wouldn't be so profitable.

There is no money in healthy people and no money in dead people, the money is in keeping people sick and alive, sort of. Just the same way countries where millions die of starvation can always afford money for weapons to kill each other. So much money in killing people. Doughnuts or Kalashnikovs both put millions in an early grave.

Curious, I'm sure I've seen far more sense in the comments in the Daily Mail than that lot in the Guardian.

Sadly I agree with Eddie. I also suspect there's another level to it - lactose intolerance and alcohol intolerance have largely been bred out of western populations due to continued exposure and I think now they are trying to do the same with carbohydrate intolerance, including but not limited to diabetes and obesity. Carbs are cheap and can be sold expensive if you slap a LOW FAT!!! label on them. Quality fats and proteins such as most of us eat are expensive to produce, and a lot of veggies such as we also eat are only as cheap as they are since we import Eastern Europeans and others to pick them.