Just finished a first pass through the NYTimes serious on the Type 2 Diabetes epidemic.
nytimes.com
Excellent, and I highly recommend it if you have Type 2 diabetes or know anybody who does -- the odds are pretty close to 100% that you will.
I have it -- and recognized myself in the story, over and over again. The bit about the health care providers not wanting to spend the money on preventive care -- look, I belong to an HMO and they really don't want to spend the money being proactive, not like Blue Cross, at least the old Blue Cross. Like, I didn't realize until I read the story that my leg cramps I've been complaining about for months and months might be related to the Type 2 diabetes. I picked that up from one of the articles.
Type 2 diabetes is the end of the road of a lot of bad decisions, eating too much, drinking too much, smoking, not getting enough exercise. The doctors tell us over and over again that if we don't take care of ourselves bad things will happen.
They just don't realize that, since we're not doctors, we don't have a clear idea in our minds what they're talking about.
I had one Kaiser dr. that was proactive with me, really talked to me, and she didn't last long.
The one I have now, she's from India, and her philosophy seems to be that bad things happen.
It's a very complicated issue -- and as the population ages and becomes more obese and more sedentary, it's going to get worse.
The end result -- kidney failure, blindness, and amputations, is a lot more expensive than early intervention.
So why not a medical culture of early intervention?
Especially for those at most risk? |
