Thursday, August 14, 2014

Obesity, Diabetes and Healthcare Costs

In a recent CDC study they predict a 40% incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in men as BMI continues to increase and as we continue to "treat" the disease instead of eliminating it.

In the Lancet study they state:

On the basis of 2000—11 data, lifetime risk of diagnosed diabetes from age 20 years was 40·2% for men and 39·6%  for women, representing increases of 20 percentage points and 13 percentage points, respectively, since 1985—89. The highest lifetime risks were in Hispanic men and women, and non-Hispanic black women, for whom lifetime risk now exceeds 50%. The number of life-years lost to diabetes when diagnosed at age 40 years decreased from 7·7 years in 1990—99 to 5·8 years  in 2000—11 in men, and from 8·7 years to 6·8 years in women over the same period. Because of the increasing diabetes prevalence, the average number of years lost due to diabetes for the population as a whole increased by 46% in men and 44% in women. Years spent with diabetes increased by 156% in men and 70% in women.

In a WebMD article they state:

The ongoing diabetes and obesity epidemics have combined with ever-increasing human lifespans to increase lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes to about 40 percent for both men and women, said lead study author Edward Gregg, chief of the epidemiology and statistics branch in the division of diabetes translation at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "We weren't necessarily surprised that it increased, but we didn't expect it to increase this much," Gregg said. "Forty percent is a humbling number." The odds are even worse for certain minority groups. Half of black women and Hispanic men and women are predicted to develop type 2 diabetes during their lifetime, the researchers reported.

In another Lancet study they comprised data on BMI and cancers. We summarize the Hazard Ratios below:

 Thus BMI has such a broad impact that it is becoming the number one health hazard with no way to stop it.