11.5 million Britons must improve lifestyle or risk being struck down with diabetes !

AS MANY as 11.5million Britons must improve their unhealthy lifestyles or be struck down with diabetes, an “alarming” report warns.

Poor eating habits and little exercise have put one in five at risk of heading to an early grave. The figures, published today, expose the extent to which our increasingly sedentary lives are creating a nationwide health problem.

Public health chiefs say people must change the way they live to arrest the rapid rise in the disease. Last year it was thought seven million were at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

But an obsession with fatty and convenience foods and poor lifestyles has seen those in danger rocket to more than 11 million, a rise of 60 per cent. This is on top of the four million already suffering both types of the ailment. The crisis is now so severe the NHS will struggle to cope with the extra patients, experts say.

Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK which released the figures, said: “That 11.5million people are now at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes is a wake-up call for us all to find out our own risk.

“Many cases are preventable and this is why it is so important people know their risk and take action if they are at increased risk.”

Today the Daily Express launches a bid in conjunction with Diabetes UK to get the nation back on its feet.

More on this story in the Express here.

Hardly a month seems to go by when Barbara Young is not banging the doom and gloom drum, she must have a very disheartening job. Imagine being the head of a very long standing organisation such as DUK, that has made not a jot of difference to the obesity epidemic and the often linked type two diabetes tragedy whatsoever. As most informed people know, exercise is great for general health and fitness, but as a weight loss tool not far off useless. But, all is not lost "Some 10,000 pedometers are to be given away accompanied by a pocket-sized guide to beat diabetes" 

What's the betting if dietary advice is included in the guide, it will be exactly the same advice that has been promoted by DUK, NHS, ADA, and BDA for years. And you all know where that has lead to, err... the obesity and type two diabetes epidemics. It seems to me those pedometers will prove to be as useless as Baroness Young's diabetes UK at improving the current lamentable situation, but hey, I suppose she has to something for that £100K a year salary. 

One last thought, I wonder how much of her salary depends on all the big pharma outfits that fund DUK euphemistically called "acknowledgements" 

Eddie