Posted on 08/16/2021 5:33:37 PM PDT by bitt
How the pandemic laid bare America’s diabetes crisis
COVID-19 has torn a particularly lethal path through the 1 in 10 Americans with diabetes, including many who never caught the virus. That's because when the pandemic hit, people with the chronic disease were already in worse shape than in years.
It took the deadly disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic to expose a deeper, more intractable U.S. public-health crisis: For more than a decade, the world’s richest nation has been losing the battle against diabetes.
Long before the pandemic, Kate Herrin was among the millions of Americans struggling to control their diabetes.
Her problems often stemmed from her government-subsidized medical insurance. Doctors routinely rejected her Medicaid plan, and she repeatedly ran out of the test strips she needed to manage her daily insulin injections. She cycled in and out of emergency rooms with dangerously high blood-sugar levels, or hyperglycemia.
Then COVID-19 hit. Herrin – poor and living alone – rarely left her apartment, ordering fast-food delivery instead of risking the grocery store. She stopped going in for regular lab tests. She had a harder time than ever securing medical supplies. Her health deteriorated further.
On Dec. 15, Herrin and Elicia Heaston, her best friend, were swapping messages on Facebook midday when Herrin abruptly dropped off the conversation. Heaston called Herrin’s phone and got no answer. When a few more hours passed without any word, Heaston and her husband drove from their home in rural West Alexandria, Ohio, to Herrin’s apartment nearby and pounded on the door. No lights were on, but they could hear the television.
Heaston called 911. When firefighters arrived, they found the 42-year-old dead on the bathroom floor. Herrin’s rescue dogs, Honey and Sugar, were lying quietly next to her.
The coroner attributed the heart attack that killed
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Yes- strange. Dystopian that the very poorest in our country are heaviest generally. Historically, it was the very wealthy.
Average weight gain for an adult American during the past year is 29 lbs!!!!
I find that very hard to believe
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I do too- but Larry O’Connor reports that stat daily on WMAL, so though unverified , I do think it’s probably pretty accurate.
Fat shaming!!!
About time!
Now, bring back the Victoria’s Secret models…
That's me. Diagnosed at 39. I was 5'9" and about 160. Later diagnosis changed to LADA, which can have some Type 2 characteristics relating to insulin resistance, too. I use both insulin and a couple of T2 pills. I went to a continuous glucose monitor last December, which has been very helpful in seeing between meal spikes. Last A1C was 5.6.
5.6? Very good!
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