Over and over again, the medical types warn patients with type 2 diabetes about the disastrous consequences of not taking care of their disease.
But prescriptions like "start an exercise program," and "quit the fast food and all those candies and cookies" often fall on deaf ears, writes reporter Anita Manning in this important article in USA Today.
Indeed, Manning articulately observes that many people with diabetes — for a variety of reasons, including high costs of buying meds — just aren’t taking important action to keep their disease under control.
If you know anyone with diabetes, please, please, please tell them to check out this piece, which includes important remarks from a variety of experts, including from Robert Rizza, M.D., an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and president of the American Diabetes Association.
"If not properly cared for, (type 2) diabetes generally starts to cause serious complications after 10 to 15 years," Rizza told Manning.
"If you get diabetes when you’re 60 and start having complications at 70 or 75, that’s tragic. If you get diabetes when you’re 30, and you’re blind or unable to work at the age of 40 or 45, that’s not only tragic but it’s devastating for our country’s economy. That’s happening."