It?s important to clarify that this is different to type 1 diabetes, in which the body?s immune cells attack and destroy the insulin-secreting cells. It can affect very young people and is not associated with diet. Type 2 diabetes is predominantly a disease of middle age, affecting the populations of affluent countries, and fuelled by a diet rich in sugar and processed food. It is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Sufferers have a two-fold increase in risk of stroke in the first five years of diagnosis. It affects all organs of the body and is linked with heart and kidney disease, peripheral nerve damage, miscarriage and stillbirth. It affects the blood vessels and circulation and can lead to amputations and blindness.
Because of our diet, type 2 diabetes is now reaching epidemic proportions. In the UK, there are 2.6 million sufferers, and an estimated further 1 million who have not yet been diagnosed. The cost to the health service is extraordinary ? accounting for 10 per cent of the NHS budget. Globally, the economic burden of the disease is estimated at $465 billion a year. To put that in perspective, the economic cost of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami was around $100 billion.
Yet unlike the tobacco/lung cancer link, the refined sugar/diabetes link has yet to grab public attention and cause panic or mobilise any meaningful public health policy. Perhaps those American researchers are right, and it is time that we did view food with added sugar in the same way we now view cigarettes. But what hope is there of doing this when the fast food and confectionery industries are having ever more of an influence on health policy?
According to accounts released by Parliament, until December 2009 the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley had been earning �25,000 a year for 12 days? work as a non-executive director of Profero, a marketing agency whose major clients include PepsiCo, makers of Pepsi, and the confectioner Mars. This experience clearly gave Mr Lansley a sweet tooth, because last year he decided, as part of plans to relax regulations on salt and sugar in foods, to enlist McDonald?s, Mars, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other fast-food companies to give the Department of Health advice on healthy eating campaigns and health policy. Critics at the time likened it to placing the tobacco industry in charge of smoke-free spaces.
Given the clear potential for conflict of interest between these companies and the nation?s sugar intake, what hope is there for real change? It would seem sugar?s toxic effects are far-reaching.
We need a 'care plan? to ease our final days
According to Professor Mayur Lakhani, chairman of the National Council for Palliative Care, the stigma that surrounds death in this country means that more than 100,000 people a year are denied the opportunity to die in the comfort of their own homes. The practising GP and former head of the Royal College of General Practitioners argues that there needs to be a change of philosophy from within the medical profession, so that doctors feel able to talk about death more openly with patients and encourage them to think about what they want when the end comes.
I couldn?t agree more. For some people, dying in hospital offers a degree of security and reassurance. But equally, for many others, they would prefer to face death in their familiar and much-loved surroundings. A study in Scotland showed that ''Anticipatory Care Plans?? ? which enable patients with terminal or chronic conditions to stipulate what kind of care they receive and where ? dramatically reduce unplanned hospital admissions for those people about to die.
What a brilliant idea. We already have ''birth plans?? for pregnant women, and indeed writing one is now a fundamental part of antenatal care. Although they cannot account for every eventuality, they give the woman some sense of control and agency in her treatment, communicating to everyone involved in her care what her wishes are.
If we can make such documents a normal, accepted, widespread part of birth, why not have the same things for death?
Going grey has never seemed so attractive
Alana Stewart, the former Mrs Rod Stewart, has admitted to using human growth hormone in order to stop her hair going grey. After she spotted a few wayward greys she began the injections and they vanished. But it?s not quite the magical solution it might appear. Side-effects include increased risk of colorectal cancer and Hodgkin?s disease, diabetes, carpal tunnel syndrome, facial changes and, for men, breast growth. The prospect of grey hair has never seemed so attractive.
Max Pemberton?s new book, 'The Doctor Will See You Now? is published by Hodder. To order a copy, call Telegraph Books on 0844 871 1515, or visit books.telegraph.co.uk
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