A Bittersweet Diabetes Economy
In 1997, a group of experts convened by the American Diabetes Association changed the definition of type 2 diabetes, lowering the blood sugar threshold, and instantly as many as 1.9 million more Americans had the condition.
The same pattern played out in 2003, in an even bigger way, when the association changed the definition of a condition known as pre-diabetes and — overnight — 25 million more Americans were affected.
In the decade that followed, the diabetes industry boomed — thanks in part to a 2008 declaration by two endocrinology groups that pre-diabetes could be treated with drugs if diet and exercise didn’t lower blood sugar.
Last year, sales of diabetes drugs reached $23 billion, according to the data from IMS Health, a drug market research firm.
Filed under: General Problems
Yep…fix those parameters so absolutely NO ONE can meet them (fasting glucose of 70-99)…..My own doctor has tried under other ‘new guidelines’ to diagnose me as ‘pre-hypertensive’ and ‘pre-hyperlipedemic’ and start me on BP meds and statins…I was NO THANKS!!! Those same numbers or slightly less were just recently considered normal and wouldn’t have needed drug therapy. I don’t have “Pre-anything’ and IF I do, I will research it and it will be MY decision on treatment, NOT the drug companies