Obesity Rises As Diabetes Rates Drop – What’s Going On?

CNBC reports the number of new diabetes cases among U.S. adults keeps falling, even as obesity rates climb, and health officials aren’t sure why.

“The bottom line is we don’t know for sure what’s driving these trends,” said the lead author of the new report, Dr. Stephen Benoit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One reason explaining the drop off could be that the diagnostic threshold for diabetes was lowered in the late 1990s.

“We might have mined out a lot of the previously unrecognized cases” and so new diagnoses in the last several years are more likely to be actual new illnesses, said Dr. John Buse, a University of North Carolina diabetes expert.

Additionally the hemoglobin A1C blood test used to diagnose diabetes is much easier to use than previous tests that required patients to fast for 12 hours or to undergo repeated blood draws.

New federal data released Tuesday found the number of new diabetes diagnoses fell to about 1.3 million in 2017, down from 1.7 million in 2009.

Mr. Divabetic takes a ’50 Shades of Gray’ approach to talking about diabetes and aging during this lively hour of diabetes education and empowerment.

As you age, you may be most aware of your new gray hairs and wrinkles, but aging causes changes throughout the entire body.

It used to be said that having diabetes aged people an additional 20 years. Today, thanks to better tools for managing diabetes and preventing and treating its complications, people with diabetes have the opportunity to live longer than ever before.

However, managing diabetes in the golden years presents a variety of challenges, ranging from increased insulin resistance and weight gain to sexual health issues and depression.

Guests include Dr. Andrea Chisholm MD, FACOG, OB-GYN, “How To Fight FATflammation!”, Author Lori Shemek PhD, “The Secrets to Living and Loving With Diabetes” and “Sex and Diabetes: For Him and For Her” Janis Roszler, MS, RD, LD/N, CDE, FAND 2008-2009 Diabetes Educator of the Year (AADE), Humorist and Author “The Sweet Blessing: MyAdventures in Diabetes” Trisha Porretti RN, BSN, CDE.

Throughout the podcast we will be playing selected songs from Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas’ album courtesy of SONY Music.

Aging is inevitable — even botox can’t turn back the clock permanently. However, you do have a choice over how you’ll spend your twilight years. By doing everything you can to take care of your body and mind, you can help live a full, meaningful, and energetic life.