It has been estimated that one out of every three children under the age of 8 will be diabetic by the time they’re 21. You think health care is expensive now? Wait until 1/3 of our population is diabetic.
I shed no tears if manufacturers of products that are nothing but chemicals plus sugars go out of business.
I am a doctor. I see diabetics constantly. More than half the US adults are overweight, and more than half of them are clinically obese.
I get statistics constantly, but I am afraid I do not have them here. I will research when I get home, and will provide you with statistics from publications all over the spectrum.
In the meantime, ask your general practitioner if I am telling the truth.
I agree that we should not have a nanny state. But your right to throw your fist ends with my face. When you neglect your health, and find yourself in a position you wouldn’t be in if you had a modicum of self-control, should it be up to me to help pay to make you right? This cuts both ways. If you can’t make a proper diet for yourself, can I expect that you will teach your children proper health habits? (And I am not speaking of “you” as you; it’s the plural “you”.)
So, Bloomberg is wrong to limit size of soft drinks. What’s your idea to reduce sugar in our diets? Remember, one 8 ounce glass of soda has seven teaspoons of refined sugar. And NutraSweet breaks down partly into methyl alcohol (bad moonshine). People have had massive headaches taking thousands to diagnose, and some (a couple of my patients) have lost vision. Fortunately, this was temporary, and returned when NutraSweet consumption was stopped.
I did not mean to make the case that all diabetes was due to improper diet. A great number of people are just unlucky, and that’s the way their body chemicals go (or don’t go). The point that I was clumsily trying to make is that way too many people have diabetes that could have relatively easily been prevented, and it was those people I was addressing earlier.
@Brandon:
First off, good show to demand documentation. Second, I can’t find it. Sorry. I read a great number of publications and am on a number of e-mail bulletin boards. When I see something electronically that I want to keep handy, I paste it to a particular word document and save it. This document does not offer the statistics I was sure it had in it, and I cannot identify a source. I apologize.
But it’s true! Ya gotta believe me!!!
While I was looking, however, I did find a few tidbits you might like to consider when thinking over healthcare options:
1 American Medical News, 8/2011: “The price of a multipayer environment for US physicians is costing nearly four times that of interacting with insurers compared with their colleagues in Canada…..nurses and other staff members spent 2.5 hours a week per physician in Canada and 20.6 a week per physician in the US”. Most of that disparity was the time spent obtaining pre-authorization for exams and procedures, which are not required in Canada. And as Einstein clearly proved, Time = Money.
2 Reuters, also 8/2011: According to S&P Healthcare Economic Index, Medicare revenue was up by 2.5 percent per patient, compared to a 7.48 percent gain for those with private insurance. My comment: if you are a government agency (Medicare), and you want to save costs, how can the addition of a middle-man (private insurers) accomplish this?
3 Bloomberg News, also 8/2011: A series of articles in the British medical journal Lancet says, in part: , “US health-care spending will rise by as much as $66 billion a year by 2030 because of increased obesity if historic trends continue…..almost 100 million Americans and 15 million Britons are already considered obese.” This is a little under 1/3 of US population. “….Yet another 65 million American adults and another 11 million British adults would join them in the next two decades based on past trends.” Got your attention? “Spending on obesity problems alone will increase 13 percent to 16 percent per year if US trends continue.” AND, should164 million Americans become obese by 2030, “… the health care burden will include an additional eight million cases of diabetes, 6.8 million additional cases of heart disease and stroke,” and “over 0.5 million cases of cancer.” But, “the researchers calculate that just a 1% reduction in body mass index (BMI) at the population level would prevent as many as 2.4 million cases of diabetes and 1.7 million cases of heart disease and stroke.”
Now, if that’s not enough to keep you awake at night, consider one last not-unrelated article from a Kaiser Permanente survey from 9/2011, that shows that “…. over the past ten years, health insurance premiums are up 113% while wages have increased only 34%.” You want fiscal cliff?
And more and more people are not taking their meds like they should because they cost too much. From Associated Press, January 2012: “Patients not taking medicine as prescribed cost the US healthcare system roughly $290 billion a year in extra treatment and related costs, research shows….nearly three in four Americans don’t take their prescription medicine as directed. Even among those with serious chronic health conditions such as diabetes, about one in three don’t.”
Healthcare is a tsunami waiting to happen; it’s the next big fiscal crisis, and it’s coming whether we pay attention or not. If you feel health care should be given only to those who can afford it themselves, you have that right. But that would put you at significant risk for disease yourself: there would be money that had been handled by people with TB, drinking glasses washed by people with hepatitis, and on and on. No gated community can keep the germs away. So, can we as a country recognize a problem while we still have time to rationally consider and implement a strategy?
Kylop over 11 years ago
Zing!
I Play One On TV over 11 years ago
It has been estimated that one out of every three children under the age of 8 will be diabetic by the time they’re 21. You think health care is expensive now? Wait until 1/3 of our population is diabetic.
I shed no tears if manufacturers of products that are nothing but chemicals plus sugars go out of business.
I Play One On TV over 11 years ago
@Brandon:
I am a doctor. I see diabetics constantly. More than half the US adults are overweight, and more than half of them are clinically obese.
I get statistics constantly, but I am afraid I do not have them here. I will research when I get home, and will provide you with statistics from publications all over the spectrum.
In the meantime, ask your general practitioner if I am telling the truth.
I agree that we should not have a nanny state. But your right to throw your fist ends with my face. When you neglect your health, and find yourself in a position you wouldn’t be in if you had a modicum of self-control, should it be up to me to help pay to make you right? This cuts both ways. If you can’t make a proper diet for yourself, can I expect that you will teach your children proper health habits? (And I am not speaking of “you” as you; it’s the plural “you”.)
So, Bloomberg is wrong to limit size of soft drinks. What’s your idea to reduce sugar in our diets? Remember, one 8 ounce glass of soda has seven teaspoons of refined sugar. And NutraSweet breaks down partly into methyl alcohol (bad moonshine). People have had massive headaches taking thousands to diagnose, and some (a couple of my patients) have lost vision. Fortunately, this was temporary, and returned when NutraSweet consumption was stopped.
CasualBrowser over 11 years ago
Suits me…. -http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upworthy.com%2Fwhy-twinkies-cost-less-than-carrots&h=cAQHLC9vP&s=1
I Play One On TV over 11 years ago
@Morty and others:
I did not mean to make the case that all diabetes was due to improper diet. A great number of people are just unlucky, and that’s the way their body chemicals go (or don’t go). The point that I was clumsily trying to make is that way too many people have diabetes that could have relatively easily been prevented, and it was those people I was addressing earlier.
@Brandon:
First off, good show to demand documentation. Second, I can’t find it. Sorry. I read a great number of publications and am on a number of e-mail bulletin boards. When I see something electronically that I want to keep handy, I paste it to a particular word document and save it. This document does not offer the statistics I was sure it had in it, and I cannot identify a source. I apologize.
But it’s true! Ya gotta believe me!!!
While I was looking, however, I did find a few tidbits you might like to consider when thinking over healthcare options:
1 American Medical News, 8/2011: “The price of a multipayer environment for US physicians is costing nearly four times that of interacting with insurers compared with their colleagues in Canada…..nurses and other staff members spent 2.5 hours a week per physician in Canada and 20.6 a week per physician in the US”. Most of that disparity was the time spent obtaining pre-authorization for exams and procedures, which are not required in Canada. And as Einstein clearly proved, Time = Money.
2 Reuters, also 8/2011: According to S&P Healthcare Economic Index, Medicare revenue was up by 2.5 percent per patient, compared to a 7.48 percent gain for those with private insurance. My comment: if you are a government agency (Medicare), and you want to save costs, how can the addition of a middle-man (private insurers) accomplish this?
3 Bloomberg News, also 8/2011: A series of articles in the British medical journal Lancet says, in part: , “US health-care spending will rise by as much as $66 billion a year by 2030 because of increased obesity if historic trends continue…..almost 100 million Americans and 15 million Britons are already considered obese.” This is a little under 1/3 of US population. “….Yet another 65 million American adults and another 11 million British adults would join them in the next two decades based on past trends.” Got your attention? “Spending on obesity problems alone will increase 13 percent to 16 percent per year if US trends continue.” AND, should164 million Americans become obese by 2030, “… the health care burden will include an additional eight million cases of diabetes, 6.8 million additional cases of heart disease and stroke,” and “over 0.5 million cases of cancer.” But, “the researchers calculate that just a 1% reduction in body mass index (BMI) at the population level would prevent as many as 2.4 million cases of diabetes and 1.7 million cases of heart disease and stroke.”
Now, if that’s not enough to keep you awake at night, consider one last not-unrelated article from a Kaiser Permanente survey from 9/2011, that shows that “…. over the past ten years, health insurance premiums are up 113% while wages have increased only 34%.” You want fiscal cliff?
And more and more people are not taking their meds like they should because they cost too much. From Associated Press, January 2012: “Patients not taking medicine as prescribed cost the US healthcare system roughly $290 billion a year in extra treatment and related costs, research shows….nearly three in four Americans don’t take their prescription medicine as directed. Even among those with serious chronic health conditions such as diabetes, about one in three don’t.”
Healthcare is a tsunami waiting to happen; it’s the next big fiscal crisis, and it’s coming whether we pay attention or not. If you feel health care should be given only to those who can afford it themselves, you have that right. But that would put you at significant risk for disease yourself: there would be money that had been handled by people with TB, drinking glasses washed by people with hepatitis, and on and on. No gated community can keep the germs away. So, can we as a country recognize a problem while we still have time to rationally consider and implement a strategy?
Didn’t think so…..