Diabetes rates will skyrocket without major diet and lifestyle changes

  Healthy lifestyles prevent diabetes (Flickr/ photo by befitter)

A new study published in the journal Diabetes Care this week concludes that the rate of diabetes will double in the next 25 years and the costs of dealing with this epidemic will triple over the same period.

Currently over 23.7 million Americans are living with diabetes and according to the Centers for Disease Control, diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death, killing over 63,000 people in 2002 and contributing to another 213,000 deaths.

According to the new study by researchers at the University of Chicago, over 44 million Americans will have diabetes in the year 2034 and the annual healthcare costs associated with the disease will balloon from the current $113 billion to $336 billion.

The lead author of the study, Elbert Huang, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, cautioned that diabetes will overburden the healthcare system unless there is a change in our diet and exercise habits or new, more effective and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes are developed.

The results of the study may be conservative since they assume that the rates of obesity in the U.S. will remain unchanged over the next 25 years. However, another study out this week found that obesity rates among diabetics are actually increasing at an alarming rate.

This second study published online in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications found that 20% of Type 2 diabetics are morbidly obese, defined as having a body mass index of over 40 which equates to about 100 pounds or more overweight. Between 1976 and 2006 the rate of morbid obesity among diabetics has increased 141%. The lead author, Dr. Holly Kramer of the Loyola University Health System, called the increase “very alarming” and stated that it had “substantial public health implications.”

During the same period rates of obesity (defined as a body mass index of 30 or more) increased at a rate of 17%, and roughly two-thirds of Type 2 diabetics are now obese.

Dr. Kramer attributes the increasing obesity epidemic to diet and lifestyle including “inexpensive food, larger portion sizes and consumption of sugary soda.”

Over 70% of chronic diseases, including diabetes, are preventable through diet and lifestyle changes. Here are two more studies supporting the need to make those changes now.