Posted on 07/24/2021 10:54:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Damon Diessner tried for years to slim down from his weight of more than 400 pounds, partly because his size embarrassed his wife but even more because his doctors told him he was at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. His hemoglobin A1c level, a blood-sugar marker, was 6.3%, just below the diabetes range of 6.5%.
Then, two years ago, one of his doctors helped get him into a YMCA-run Diabetes Prevention Program not far from his home in Redmond. The group classes, at first held in person and then via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic, were led by a lifestyle coach.
He learned how to eat better, exercise more and maintain a healthier lifestyle overall. He now weighs 205 pounds, with an A1c level of 4.8%, which is in the normal range.
“This has been a life-changing program,” said Diessner, 68, an environmental consultant. “My cardiologist said you have clearly beaten diabetes. I tell everyone who has blood-sugar issues or just wants to lose weight that this is the thing to do.”
Over the past decade, tens of thousands of American adults of all ages have taken these diabetes-prevention classes with personalized coaching at YMCAs, hospitals, community health centers and other sites. But out of an estimated 16 million Medicare beneficiaries whose excess weight and risky A1c level make them eligible, only 3,600 have participated since Medicare began covering the two-year Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program in 2018, according to the federal government’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services).
Researchers and people who run diabetes-prevention efforts said participation is low because of the way Medicare has set up the program. It pays program providers too little: a maximum of $704 per participant, and usually much less, for dozens of classes over two years.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Runs in my family. I didn’t get it. My brother did. My half-brother(15 years younger) got type-1 at age 18. I read somewhere depression at a young age was a contributing factor. Lost his mother at age 12.
If wheat is the problem, then why isn’t ‘keto’ both effective and compulsory?
Ouch. Good for losing weight. But, he might lose his legs.
Agricultural PACs are big hitters in DC. Why would they vote out their industry? Foisting wheat to public enemy #1 would gut the industry, and the pharmaceutical industry is making bank hawking medication for all of the ills suffered by those still believing in the big lie that “whole grains” are the thing of miracles.
Read “Wheat Belly.” Wheat is essentially poison. The human body is not physiologically designed to digest wheat or grains in general. There’s a reason farmers refer to wheat and corn as animal feed.
“The human body is not physiologically designed to digest wheat or grains in general. There’s a reason farmers refer to wheat and corn as animal feed.”
You are not wrong in that respect, but you failed to answer my question.
Hmmmm...
I can’t make you read intent or comprehension. My response covered the main reasons: money and power.
As far as effective goes, there is BOATLOAD of people on this site who swear by Keto. Apparently now the UK has finally shifted its diabetes treatment and is telling people to get off carbs too. But the US...well, we still have ADM, “Supermarket to the World”, running things.
Keto works. I’m a testament to it. Paleo is equally effective. Anything involving the wholesale removal of grains from the diet and a severe reduction in sugar would bring us more than halfway to the finish line in beating back some of the leading causes of chronic illness. Unfortunately, big pharma is making way too much money off of these maladies, and any behavioral remedies would cut into their bottom line.
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