sck@elsie.UUCP (Steve Kaufman) (07/24/85)
Somebody wrote: > Look at the number of diabetics in the world today? Anybody have a > better explanation for this rise other than the consumption of refined sugar, > caffeine and chocolate? A widely-respected reference book says: "It is widely believed that rates of diabetes have increased substantially in recent years. But there is surprisingly little evidence to support this opinion. The number of diabetics identified in the 1973 U.S. National Health Survey did substantially exceed the number counted in the Nat'l " of 1965. [However, ] the manner of questioning about diabetes was more thorough in '73. ... During this 8-year interval there was also a great increase in the # of blood glucose tests ... due to the introduction of automated systems that measure [many blood constituents] simultaneously, of which one is usually glucose. Formerly, blood glucose determinations were usually performed selectively; they are now very often done on all patients seen in hospitals & clinics. It is therefore difficult to know whether the rise in diabetes rates is real or apparent. Americans are probably fatter than heretofore, but evidence to this effect is not wholly convincing. ... Palumbo et. al. (1970) found little evidence of changes in the incidence of diabetes in Rochester, MN [Mayo Clinic data] between the years 1945 & 1970. Kahn & Hiller (1974) found no evidence of any recent increase in diabetes-related blindness, except in non-white women. Evidence discussed elsewhere in this book clearly establishes recent sharp increases in diabetes in certain ... groups, such as Indians & blacks, but it is not clear whether age-adjusted rates are any higher in whites than in 1920. ... In Europe, ... prevalence of diabetes did increase ... during the decade after WWII, but subsequent increases in prevalence may only be apparent." [excerpted from pp. 145-146 of _Epidemiology_of_Diabetes_&_its_Vascular_Lesions_ by Kelly West,MD (Elsevier: NY, 1978)]