HOW TO REDUCE THE MEDICAL COST OF DIABETES

In 2011, the Center for Disease Control estimated that there were over 25 million individuals who had either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. The America Diabetes Association estimated, in 2012, that the national health care cost of diabetes is $245 billion, which includes $176 billion in directed medical costs and $69 billion due to reduced productivity.

Modern medicine only has so many answers and in spite of all the advances in medical and surgical treatments for our diabetic patients, over 60 percent of them still die prematurely from a cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke. The main reason is that by the time a patient is diagnosed as having diabetes almost 60 percent already have major hardening of their arteries. This is because most of these patients have been struggling with pre-diabetes for 10 to 15 years before they are diagnosed and during this time their arteries are aging much faster than they should.

This is why the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American College of Endocrinology now recommend that physicians treat pre-diabetes as aggressively as they do diabetes. They looked at the worldwide medical literature and concluded that the best thing we as physicians can recommend to our patients is intensive lifestyle changes—not drugs.

I detail these healthy lifestyles in my book, Healthy for Life, and in my Healthy for Life Program located at www.healthconceptsint.com, which are basically a healthy diet that does not spike your blood sugar, modest exercise and nutritional supplementation. I have now done three separate clinical trials using this online behavioral modification program and have found that nearly everyone who has pre-diabetes is able to improve their insulin sensitivity enough to actually tip back into a normal metabolic state.

I personally feel that most cases of diabetes is now preventable and that it is a choice even if you have a strong family history of diabetes. So, the best way to save on health care costs in regards to diabetes is to make lifestyle choices that will help prevent it. Even if you have diabetes, following these simple, doable lifestyles allows you to control it better and significantly decrease your risk of having complications because of your diabetes.