Are We Siding With Treatment for Diabetes Over Its Prevention?
Preventing diabetes type 2 can be relatively easy in about 90 percent of cases. Curing the disease is a different story because although science is making advances in discovering medications that help control blood sugar levels, those medicines have serious side effects and eventually there is a price to be paid for relying too much on treatment and failing to prevent.
In his article “Type 2 diabetes: easier to prevent than to treat”, Doctor Richard Beliveau, Special to QMI Agency, reminds us that we should concentrate our forces in the area of prevention and rely less on treatment.
The article as published by C.Health.Canoe.Ca on May. 30, 2011
Nearly 90% of type 2 diabetes cases could be eliminated through simple lifestyle changes. In this case, it is important to think prevention, because diabetes is very hard to treat and certain medications used to do so can have major side effects involving the cardiovascular system.
Type 2 diabetes is on the cusp of becoming a national epidemic. In a report published in December 2009, the Canadian Diabetes Association said that the number of Canadians diagnosed with diabetes doubled between 2000 and 2010, jumping from 1.3 million to 2.5 million people.
Even worse, it is estimated that between 2010 and 2020, 1.2 million new diabetes cases will be diagnosed, bringing the number of people fighting this disease to nearly 3.7 million. According to the Diabetes Association, this is a “economic tsunami” as costs associated with the disease could reach $17 billion by 2020.
The damage caused by type 2 diabetes is due to the numerous problems stemming from chronic hyperglycemia: a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers, renal insufficiency, retinopathy, circulation problems in the lower limbs and even serious cognitive issues like Alzheimer’s Disease. Diabetes is not a “benign” disease, as is thought to be the case by many. It is, in fact, a very serious health problem that could lead to serious health consequences to the afflicted.
Side effects
The danger posed by type 2 diabetes remains high, as the disease continues to be very hard to treat. In fact, despite advances in medicine, the available treatment options are relatively minimal, and the available medications can have serious side effects.
The class of medications called thiazolidinedione (TZD) is a good example: even if the compounds are very useful in improving the body’s response to insulin (and thus reducing blood sugar levels), the medication can frequently cause water retention that leads to an increase in blood volume. In some cases, this retention is so significant that their blood volume is too much for the heart’s pumping system, potentially leading to major complications.
Recent studies have shown that these side effects are the result of an unexpected action by TZD on the systems involved in the re-absorption of ions and water in the kidneys. In most cells, TZD interacts with a protein called the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR), and this interaction stimulates the synthesis of proteins that improve response to insulin and the entry of glucose into the cells.
In the kidneys, however, the interaction of TZD with PPAR causes a completely different response: there is instead a large increase in the retention of sodium and bicarbonate that leads, by the process of osmosis, to a massive entrance of water into the cells. This retention makes it so that patients treated with TZD often see significant weight gain and, in more serious cases, suffer damage to the heart.
Importance of prevention
These observations show that even if medications are developed in a way that allows them to interact as specifically as possible with a target, the diversity of the human genome and the physiological complexity of the body’s regulatory system makes such specifications very hard to reach.
Generally speaking, the large majority of medications cause side effects. So, even if we should be excited about medical advancements that help us treat serious diseases, we must still accept the limits of these treatment options and admit that prevention of these diseases is as important as treating them.
This concept is particularly well illustrated by type 2 diabetes, where a healthy lifestyle based on a proper diet, a healthy weight, and regular physical activity can allow us to prevent 90% of cases of this disease and avoid the difficulties associated with treatment.
To your good health!
Emilia Klapp, R.D., B.S.
www.TheDiabetesClub.com
www.Discussion.TheDiabetesClub.com
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