Time invested for good health reduces costs now and prolongs health and life. 

Contact us and get started. Health planning now is more important even than financial planning.

Extend Life and Good Health Years:

Reversal of Diabetes is an Astounding Investment! It immediately returns more time and saves more money than you might invest along the way. Even before Remission.

Diabetes Risk Alert is a signal about a sure thing. Diabetes Risk is not like  risk of fire or flood. If the house doesn’t get burned down or flooded out, everything is okay. Maybe for a hundred years.

Diabetes Risk absolutely predicts there will be years of disability and distress before some final event. No one knows when that will start or when that will end but it certainly will happen sooner than it would without diabetes.

We do know when the average Caucasian non-Hispanic person with diabetes can expect healthy years will be lost and when life will end. Investigators analyzed data from 3992 participants in a National Survey (NHANES 2003-10). Results showed causes of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease included excess body weight as well as age and gender.

Total years of life lost for very obese men and women ranged up to 8 years. Even more striking was the loss of healthy life-years that were 2 to 4 times greater in every category. Those with type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease lost as much as 19 years of healthy life!

The figure shows how body weight affected the results. Weight has been presented as Body Mass Index.

• BMI 30 – 35 defines Mild Obesity. A man who is 70 inches tall in this range would weigh 220 to 240 pounds. A woman who is 66 inches tall in this range would weigh 190 to 210 pounds.
• BMI 35+ defines High-risk Obesity. High risk obesity is about 40% over ideal body weight. High risk obesity for that man would be over 240 pounds. For that woman, her weight would be over 210 pounds.

Note that men and women with high risk obesity had the greatest losses, especially losses in healthy life-years.

The figure also shows how age of onset for type 2 diabetes affected results. Note that patients who developed diabetes at a young age had the greatest losses. 

The next figure shows more clearly which categories had the greatest loss in years of life.

• At 30 years of age, obese adults of low risk had 13 years of poor health until death 7 years prematurely.

• At age 50 years, those with high-risk obesity also suffered 13 years of poor health before death 5 years prematurely.

• At age 70 years, those who escaped diabetes until their later years still had several years of poor health that could have been avoided before death 7 years prematurely.

Diabetes Risk Alert signals inevitable loss of what could have been many more years of good health. They turned into years of poor health. We just don’t know how or when that will happen. Diabetes is one of the costliest and long-lasting causes of chronic illness in the U.S.

Results are obvious. Years of enjoying good health turn into years of compromise, disability and distress.

Limitations Because of Diabetes:

Employment

Diabetes endangers ability to work. Many lose employment and can’t find a job because they can’t do the work. Diabetes also causes work loss time, job limitations and decreased productivity. This all limits earning a living as well as losing employer-sponsored healthcare insurance.

Family, Friends and Community

Limits on things to do and places to go make it difficult to enjoy being with others. It’s especially difficult for someone with severe diabetes being with children and mixing in the community.

Recreation and Entertainment

Most activities are seriously limited when places are difficult to reach and actions are hard to perform. Many complications of diabetes pretty much rule out most vigorous activities. Its becomes impossible to be in many sports or join in recreations. Also, it’s hard to get around the stadium or the playground or the beach. It even becomes difficult to walk in the park.

Improve Quality of Life:

Reversing diabetes almost immediately improves physical mobility, strength, mood and intellect.
The Look AHEAD Study included 5000 people in the U.S. who were Overweight or Obese and had Diabetes. They were treated for eight years. About half were treated with Intensive Lifestyle Intervention (ILI) and half were given standard Diabetes Self-Education (DSE). The group treated Intensively had substantially better results in controlling body weight and increasing physical activity. They also had fewer symptoms of Depression.
The figure shows the results for mental health. During the Study, the group treated Intensively (ILI), shown in the Gold bars, had many fewer symptoms of Depression. The most improvement was during the most intense treatment. Both groups drifted towards more symptoms as they became older and had less contact with their counsellors in self-management.
The next figure shows the results of physical ability to go about their daily lives. During the Study, the subjects treated Intensively (ILI), again shown in Gold bars, were better able to do what they wanted to do during the day. Again, as self-management skills drifted away, so did their quality of life.The Study did not tell us which individuals did the best. We only know that subjects in the group with Intensive Lifestyle Intervention had better quality of life than those given standard Diabetes Self-Education.

We do know that the group with Intensive treatment had higher quality of life and well as more complete reversal of their diabetes.

Diabetes Risk Alerts:

It’s obvious that diabetes is a threat to physical and mental health as well as damaging financial health. Diabetes Risk Alerts tell you when it’s urgent to avoid unwanted results.     

• Overweight/Obesity

More than 3 pounds per inch is a danger alert for diabetes.

“Track your weight—keep it in a good range.”

Waist Circumference Maximum

Another danger alert for diabetes is a maximum waist circumference that is 40 inches or more for a man and 35 inches or more for a woman.

“Diabetes Risk Alert: Pay attention to your waist size.” 

• Eyesight

Good vision is needed to pass the eye tests for keeping a driver’s license. Bleeding in the back of the eyes or early cataracts can be the first sign of diabetes.Even mild loss of vision is a major Risk Alert because diabetes is the most common cause of blindness at any age.

“Be sure to have regular eye exams.”

• Peripheral Nerve Function

Loss of sensory and motor nerve function in arms and legs make it hard to feel and handle things, to use muscles and coordinate movement. Nerve damage from diabetes can also cause pain as well as numbness. Pain caused by diabetic neuropathy is one of the most common and most distressing complications of diabetes.

“Diabetes Risk Alert:  Numbness of the skin and weakness of muscles.”

• Peripheral Vascular Disease

Poor circulation to legs and feet is a serious handicap to walking and climbing stairs. Diabetes not only affects major arteries, it also affects smaller vessels especially in the feet. Skin ulcerations occur frequently and take a long time to heal. Peripheral vascular disease is a very serious alert about complications of diabetes.

“Diabetes Risk Alert: Check your feet for breaks in the skin.”

• Memory and Mental Function

Forgetting things combined with difficulty thinking and making decisions may all be caused by diabetes. Unfortunately, diabetes may progress to cause vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  Difficulty with memory and IQ function are major risk alerts for diabetes and its complications.

“Diabetes Risk Alert: Forget things you usually remember.”

Pay Attention To Diabetes Risk Alerts:

There are no medical, surgical or mental health treatments that can match personal decision, dedication and persistence. Reaching happy, independent Golden Years depends on investment in health right now.

Contact us. We’ll help you get the Good Health Years you want.