That's what a Lancet editorial thinks of the public health status of diabetes.
Editors of the Lancet didn’t mince words when they weighed in on the epidemic of type 2 diabetes — they said the fact that the mostly preventable disease has become so prevalent is “a public health humiliation.”
The editorial calls for “a strong, integrated, and imaginative response” to the disease, noting that while there will be a plethora of research on drugs to control blood sugar presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting kicking off this weekend, there’s a “glaring absence” of research on lifestyle interventions.
“In this respect, medicine might be winning the battle of glucose control, but it is losing the war against diabetes,” the authors write.
“Lifestyle interventions” is another name for efforts to convince people to lose or maintain weight, eat a more healthful diet and get more physical activity. When people do make changes, good things can happen — research has found that even a 7% weight loss can produce much as a 58% improvement in the risk of progressing from prediabetes to diabetes.
Read the full article here .