Cost Of Diabetes: Disease’s Impact Felt Around The World

i would like someone to justify the cost of the test strips. seriously, 50 strips for Accu-Chek Aviva costs around $57.00 at Walmarts. and if you wind up using more than 2 a day, you're going to be in it for some serious cash. shame, but there is no disease or condition that some drug company won't try to make a mint from

Syndrome X (insulin resistance) can be fought with special adherence to a diet that carefully watches the 'glycemic index" of foods. Won't help with juvenille form of the disease. Read a book called "enter the zone" by Barry Sears--a very erudite discussion of insulin resistance and glycemic index with excellent dietary suggestions.

Once again you conflate "diabetes" and "obesity" without acknowledging the millions of people who have type 1 diabetes and are not obese. We are constantly blamed for a disease that cannot be prevented or cured, just treated. We are treated as pariahs and blamed for the "Cost to society" even though we can't do anything about it. You also don't even mention how much it costs the individual person who has diabetes -- thousands of dollars a year, even in countries with universal health care.

You refer to type 2. Type 1 is a completely different disease. The fact they're both called diabetes (Full name is diabetes mellitus, which describes the most noticeable symptom, excessive sweet urine) is a historical relic from before we discovered the difference. They both result in the same effect (inability to properly regulate blood sugar), but have completely different causes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition. Your immune system goes berserk and destroys your pancreases, and with it your ability to produce insulin and regulate your blood sugar. No diet or exercise will do anything about that. The only solution is manually managing blood sugar via careful monitoring of diet and insulin injections. Type 2 is due to insulin resistance. Your pancreas are fine, but due to obesity or other factors, your body doesn't properly respond to insulin. This is treated via diet, exercise, medication, and sometimes insulin injections. This can typically be prevented by proper diet, exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight.

My hubby is now having to take OTC Vit D pills.I take one once a week thru my Dr.whom I see for my wacky thyroid.My bone scan was good but leaning toward thinning bones,something my Mother never had coz she ate a lot more dairy products than I do.I've had to cut back on cheese coz of my cholesterol,I can't win.

Try Costco.

Wrong. More often than not people are born with Type-1.

You're not a pariah and you don't deserve to be treated as such. While I have Type-2, I completely understand how much more difficult it is to have Type-1 AND I also fully appreciate the fact that you don't have it as a consequence of lifestyle or diet.

Really? What part of Canada do you live in because they aren't free in my part of Canada. The testing device generally is but not the strips. The only way you can get them for free is if you have an extended healthcare plan that covers test strips.

The overall cost of diagnosed diabetes in the United States is $174 billion. The cost of UNDIAGNOSED diabetes in the United States (because people in the US people can't afford the health care that every single Canadian and Brit is guaranteed) is close to $1 TRILLION.