Diabetes Nation
PRINT PAGE
Diabetes Nation
According to experts, this is good news: “About half of all Americans have either diabetes or pre-diabetes.”[i]
I'm sorry, but since when did having half the population of a country diagnosed with diabetes become good news?
Well – according to those clever people who dabble with statistics – it is because the rate at which new cases of diabetes are being diagnosed isn’t as high as they predicted it would be by now. So the ‘good news’ is that the number of new cases of diabetes in the USA has finally started to level out, suggesting that at long last efforts to curb obesity, and policies aimed at diet, physical activity and lifestyle, are actually beginning to pay off.
Whilst this may be a positive if but a minuscule step in the right direction, we can’t simply ignore this message, "About half of all Americans have diabetes", nor can we champion the fact that the rise in new cases has slowed down, when the figures for diabetes are so wildly out of control.
This statistic is saying that in America alone there are 160 million people who cannot control their blood sugar levels and are now at major risk of not only diabetes but also the additional ill health associations that go with it.
These figures would be easy to discount if we were to say, “Oh well, that’s America for you”, a country that has been fighting an epidemic of obesity and obesity-related illnesses for decades. However, this is not just a national issue, it is an issue on a global scale. If we truly study the statistics we cannot ignore the fact that the prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes is skyrocketing in Asia as well as the West.
Currently the number of people with diabetes (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) stands at a whopping 387 million – and that doesn’t factor in the numbers with pre-diabetes!
In fact the numbers are so high that if we were to gather all the diabetics into one population to create a Diabetes Nation they would equate to the third largest country in the world.
Let’s pause to allow that to sink in – Diabetes Nation would be the third largest population in the world, only being topped by China and India – now that’s a lot of people.
So big deal, diabetes isn’t that bad is it?
It is all too easy to underestimate the health impact of diabetes, as for one thing it is so common that if you don’t have it you are bound to know someone who does and additionally it doesn’t strike you down like a heart attack or a terminal illness.
However, diabetes is no laughing matter – it is a chronic disease where you don’t make enough insulin or can’t use the insulin you make. This causes high blood glucose levels, which damage your organs and lead to heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney damage and limb amputations.
And the saddest fact of all is that:
For most cases of Type 2 Diabetes, it is entirely preventable through lifestyle choices.
Yet, despite this fact, the cases of diabetes continue to rise.
We know that people are eating copious amounts of sugar and junk food but all the good health advice in the world is not stopping it. So what will make people stop eating the foods they know are an assault on the body?
Most cases of diabetes could have been prevented by following a healthy lifestyle, but it appears we are unable to make the necessary changes to live with the level of care and support that our body needs. Consequently diabetes continues to be one of the most prevalent chronic health issues facing humanity today, and the number of people being diagnosed with the condition is increasing each year.
-
Do we now look to governments to set in place greater efforts to prevent diabetes with regulations and taxes on sugar consumption and programs to tackle poor lifestyle, as diabetes is closely linked to diet and obesity?
-
If so, where does this leave us with our own level of self-responsibility?
-
Are we so out of control and lacking in willpower that we need regulations and taxes to stop us eating sugar?
The problem arises in our attitude towards diabetes, where the myth abounds that it is not a serious condition, even though we know there are severe and debilitating complications that come with it like heart disease, limb amputations, blindness and nerve damage that causes constant debilitating gnawing pain.
In Australia for example, a brand-new case of diabetes is being diagnosed every five minutes. Yet we are not talking about this, it’s not headline news.
-
How long can we simply fob it off as, “Oh well, that’s modern life, our diets are bad, look at all the junk food and sugar” . . . ?
-
How long can we keep blaming the sugar and food industries for our food choices, or abdicate responsibility by asking governments to do more by regulating what we eat by adding a sugar tax to soft drinks and junk foods?
Until we take responsibility for ourselves, nothing is going to change.
We need to start talking about what is going on, get serious and look at what is happening to us and the way we are living, rather than blaming what is going on around us or dismissing it as unimportant.
How long can we wait before we start the discussion – until diabetes is affecting 75% or even more of an entire nation . . . or until diabetes is affecting you? And then will that still not be enough as we can always fall back on the old chestnut of, “I’m OK so long as I don’t have cancer”... ?
It appears currently that there isn’t a good enough reason for us to stop eating those sugary foods and it is clear from the statistics that the fear and the reality of diabetes with its associated health risks is not providing the disincentive. We know this because even the fear of cancer does not deter people from unhealthy choices as packets of cigarettes emblazoned with pictures of death and lung decay continue to sell.
So what is it that we don't want to admit or know about how we drive the human body?
What is worth avoiding that is so bad we would rather risk blindness and amputation rather than face it?
Philosopher Serge Benhayon in his Esoteric Medicine series speaks of diabetes as the dis-ease that sets in when we deny the truth of who we are and don't live our potential. A potential that is subverted by denying our Divine light in a sea of distraction – video games, soft drinks and juices, long hours of work and fast foods and those all too seemingly delicious sugary snacks. The sweetness that we know ourselves to be at our essence subverted by an imitation of it – the high fructose hit to our body and the release of dopamine that accompanies it. The deadly spikes in blood sugar as we try to achieve that sweet feeling that we miss in ourselves.
Do we live our potential or have we settled for a sugar substitute of it?
Do we know ourselves by the light in our eyes and the effect we have simply by walking into a room, by smiling and letting people in . . . or are we missing the natural joy that we knew so well as kids and trying to replace it with a substitute called sugar?
"Our greatest form of medicine is to live as WHO WE TRULY ARE."
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings and Revelations, p 570
Filed under
Lifestyle, Sugar, Health conditions, Healthy living, Sugar Free
