Good to eat don't waste. N eat healthy food does not mean being healthy and don't get sick. Some ppl their whole life eat healthy , exercise and all tat crap n than still Kenna cancer or diabetes etc. The food they eat is blend n tasteless n they only think they are enjoying their meals. Eat like tat might as well Soylent Green. Food must be tasty n enjoyed. Live to eat. If not wat the point of living? But also all in moderation. Desserts etc not to b eaten every day. But still must enjoy abit. Don't want to eat healthy n horrible n never lived life.
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Diabetes 'epidemic' causing avoidable and costly health risks, doctors warn
SUN AT 12:36PM
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John Pahos was one of thousands who had diabetes but did not know.
ABC NEWS
John Pahos had always eaten well and exercised daily, so when he found out he had type 2 diabetes, it came as a surprise.
Key points:
- More than one third of hospital patients have diabetes, research suggests
- Half a million Australians are thought to have the condition without realising
- Diabetes Australia says Australia needs a "wake-up call" in treating the disease
"It was a bit of a shock because my lifestyle's reasonably good, so I thought if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody," he said.
He did not have any noticeable symptoms and his diagnosis was detected by doctors at Melbourne's Austin Hospital as part of a program to reduce the disease.
Research conducted through the program shows Mr Pahos is not alone. An average of 34 per cent of patients at the hospital had diabetes — and 5 per cent of those had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes which was only discovered as part of the study.
It is estimated about 500,000 people across Australia may have the disease without knowing.
"One of the wicked problems with type 2 diabetes is it's often silent," Diabetes Australia chief executive Greg Johnson said.
"This is a wake-up call to the Australian community and our health system.
"It's about time we firstly recognised just how serious the diabetes epidemic is and [how it is] overwhelming our hospitals and health services. And secondly, it's about time we did more to actually detect this problem earlier."
PHOTO Elif Ekinci's team at Austin Health diagnosed John Pahos as part of its initiative.
ABC NEWS: JAMES OATEN
Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects a person's blood sugar levels, which can in turn cause serious complications. It is the leading reason for people needing dialysis in Australia.
The annual cost of diabetes in Australia is estimated to be $14.6 billion, which Professor Johnson could be reduced with early diagnosis.
"People are developing complications, it's costing the country a fortune and it's having a terrible impact on the lives of thousands and thousands of people when a lot of this could be prevented," he said.
Professor Johnson said people with diabetes were "frequent flyers" in Australian hospitals because of diabetes-related complications such as heart attacks, strokes and amputations.
Community 'doesn't connect the dots'
Despite there being about 1 million diabetes-related hospital admissions across Australia in the past year, the Austin Health research found 62 per cent of people aged 40 and above were not concerned about developing the disease.
"We don't connect the dots. People — the community — doesn't connect the fact that diabetes is the underlying cause of so many serious complications," Professor Johnson said.
Type 2 is linked to obesity and accounts for about 85 per cent of all diabetes cases, and the number of people living with the condition is growing each year.
When you're 'high risk' for type 2 diabetes, how can you lower the odds?
An online screening test tells Anna Salleh she is at "high risk" for diabetes. She investigates what it means and what she can do about it.
Aboriginal Australians are more likely to develop diabetes than non-Indigenous Australians.
Elif Ekinci, director of Diabetes at Austin Health, said young and otherwise fit and healthy people were not immune.
"It can affect people who feel they've had a really great lifestyle, who do a lot of exercise … it's a really serious condition that can affect anyone," she said.
"There has a bit of a shift, that the age of onset of diabetes is coming on earlier.
"If you get diabetes at a younger age you're living with this condition for longer periods of time, so that there is a high risk of developing the complications."
Dr Ekinci and her colleagues established the Diabetes Discovery Initiative, which led the research and saw patients admitted to the hospital automatically tested.
"It's fantastic, I applaud the Austin Hospital for testing people," said Mr Pahos, who was diagnosed when he went to the hospital for an unrelated bowel condition.
"It doesn't hurt to go out and get tested," he said.
