By T. R. Shaw Jr.
As I watched this year’s Super Bowl LV, it was great to see an ad for Dexcom, a personal diagnostic device to continuously monitor blood glucose level on your phone, without finger pokes! This device, and others like it, which I use and swear by, are a quantum leap in self-management of diabetes.
As a diabetes advocate, the exciting thing was this ad affirmed that diabetes awareness is becoming more mainstream, and the growing chronic disease is finally getting the media attention it deserves.
The fact
it aired in a Super Bowl ad is unprecedented and welcome! But, I had to chuckle a little though, because it
was preceded by a Mountain Dew ad!
A few
days earlier I had an appointment with my endocrinologist. He brought up a term
I’ve never heard…diabesity. He said it’s
America’s silent pandemic, and that it's exploding and we’re not hearing about. I couldn’t agree more.
I did a
little research on the term, "diabesity." It's a well documented condition for the past 10 years. Diabesity is the medical term for diabetes occurring within the context of
obesity; another pandemic in the United States. The latest epidemiological data shows the
rising prevalence, health, and economic impact of diabesity. It’s only getting worse.
I’ve been a type-2 diabetic for more than 25 years. I’m acutely aware of what it’s all about. I have it under good control through hard work and knowledge, but I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve had good insurance, a healthy lifestyle, as well as access to great healthcare. Many today don’t have access, and even more don’t realize they have the chronic disease.
Typically, denial came before acceptance, like many others before me. I write about the personal struggle in a chapter of my motivational memoir, Defy the Immediate.
According
to a recent National Institute of Health report, The global prevalence of
diabetes in 2010 was 284 million people worldwide constituting around 6.4% of
the world population, which is higher than was projected in earlier studies. Furthermore, the projections for 2030 show the prevalence to reach 439
million individuals comprising 7.7% of the world population.
The
economic impact will be more staggering.
The NIH says the burden of diabetes on the world economy has been rising
steadily in the last decade to reach $376 billion in 2010 and is expected to
reach $490 billion in 2030.
NIH goes on to say that “Diabesity represents a substantial economic burden as
reflected by diabetes and obesity consuming 14% [for diabetes] and 5.7% [for
obesity] of the USA's total health expenditure respectively, representing the
highest known expenditure on diabesity worldwide. When costs associated with
being overweight were also included, the upper limit of obesity expenditure
rises to 9.1% of the USA's total healthcare expenditure.”
The
Report continues: “The health impact of diabesity is substantial to include
long-term diabetic complications, reduction in health-related functioning,
reduction of quality of life, and reduced overall life expectancy. Long-term
complications include myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular stroke, and
end-stage renal disease. Recent advances also have found that there is an
association between chronic stress, depression, and sleeping troubles to both
diabetes and obesity. This century is the unprecedented diabetogenic era in
human history. It is thus urgent to take steps including screening, prevention
and early management in an attempt to control this evolving epidemic of
diabesity,” according to the NIH Report.
It has
long been said that America has suffered from “affluenza,” a term for all the
good things that came out of the post-WWII boom. My generation grew up in the 50’s and 60’s
when our lifestyles took a dramatic turn.
As a society we shifted from rural to suburban culture. Our staples came from grocery stores and not
so much from the garden. With mobility,
came convenience.
We saw
the rise of home baking. Betty Crocker
replaced baking from scratch and we developed a craving for sweets. Here in Michigan, we lean toward Jiffy mixes! Home baking was now easy and quick. We
saw the rise of fast-food franchises and eating-on-the-go. Vending machines popped up everywhere. In my hometown, the cereal industry discovered that
sweet sells, and our breakfast habits changed to match our busy lifestyle.
Eating has almost become an an American sport and the marketing of food has followed. All of this has created the healthcare problem we have today and it’s still fueled by aggressive marketing in our mass media.
While government and the media have focused on COVID, as they should, diabesity will be with us long after COVID becomes a bad memory. Diabesity will only grow in seriousness and will continue to tax our healthcare delivery system. We need to act now to make combating diabetes and obesity a national priority. We must make insulin widely available to those who need it and we need to educate ourselves about healthy lifestyle choices.
The good thing about diabetes, if there is such a thing, is it's the most manageable, and often reversible chronic diseases we can face. The advances in medications and diagnostic devices for management is astounding. But, like everything else, it's far better to prevent it in the first place.
I look
forward to the day when a White House press conference announces a War on
Diabesity as a threat to not only our collective health but our economic
stability as a nation. Today, that’s
just a pipe dream, but we can hope.
T. R. Shaw Jr. is CEO of Shaw Communication in Battle Creek, Michigan. He is a longtime journalist, author, retired U.S. Navy public affairs officer, retired funeral director, and active community leader. DEFY THE IMMEDIATE; A Journey of Failure, Perseverance and Success, is his first book and is available on Shaw’s website, www.trshawjr.com, and bookstores can order directly from www.missionpointpress.com
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