The president of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) challenged fellow U.S. physicians to commit themselves to making improvements in diabetes care.
Robert A. Rizza, MD, ADA President, Medicine & Science, presented a horrifying scenario in a keynote speech presented at the Association’s 66th Annual Scientific Sessions, according to the ADA.
“Unless something is done to prevent it, diabetes will result in 35 million heart attacks, 13 million strokes, 6 million episodes of renal failure, 8 million instances of blindness or eye surgery, 2 million amputations, and 62 million deaths for a total of 121 million serious diabetes-related adverse events in the next 30 years,” pronounced Dr. Rizza of the ADA, which is the nation’s leading voluntary health organization supporting diabetes research, information and advocacy.
Dr. Rizza, in an interview, claimed that we have “the means at hand to reduce the risk of serious diabetes complications by over 60% and reducing medical costs by $150 billion over next 30 years. …But to achieve it, we need to reorganize our nation’s health care system so that it rewards prevention and optimum care.”
I confess that I wasn’t at this keynote so therefore I’m not privvy to all of Dr. Rizza’s comments, but I’m just curious why this ADA press release contained no info (unless I missed it) regarding the urgency of eating right and exercising to monitor or ward off type 2 diabetes. Just wondering.