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The Disease of the 21st
Century
The most lethal disease through much of human
history has been influenza. It was the number one cause
of death in 1907, fell to sixth place in 1957, and further
dropped to eighth place in 2007. It is still a major
killer in places without a strong medical infrastructure.
What might be properly labeled as the
disease of the 21st century, however, is diabetes. The
Centers for Disease Control recently released a study based
upon 2007 aggregate data that points out that about 8 percent
of Americans, about 24 million people, have diabetes. It also points
out that another 57 million people (about 25.6 percent) have
health issues such as impaired blood glucose levels which
targets them as being in the on-deck circle for a diagnosis
(i.e., pre-diabetes).
Part of the insidious nature of diabetes is
that it is very much a reflection of our culture. It is
a disease that is amplified by obesity. It is connected
to a high-sugar-intake diet. It is also fertilized by a
lack of exercise.
There are other factors
which stand in the way of being able to wipe out
diabetes, but none of them have anything to do with the
biochemistry or endocrinology related to the production of
insulin. Rather, these have to do with the political
chemistry contained within the attitudes and mindsets of each
of us, and the political priorities we establish in our
society.
One of these factors is the absence of health
care insurance coverage for amazingly huge numbers of people
in the United States. Various numbers are cited about
how many uninsured Americans there are. All
estimates, however, are in the ugly range of tens of millions
of people, many of whom are children. Whatever the real
numbers may be, those numbers are too large.
In this society, lack of some form of health
insurance means lack of access to the health care
establishment. It means treatment not sought, or
treatment denied. It compounds a disease of the body
with a disease of the spirit.
With or without health insurance coverage,
another strong compounding factor, perhaps the strongest of
all, is our own lack of accountability in taking charge of our
lives. In most cases, diabetes is preventable or
certainly its manifestations are controllable if we choose
to make them so.
One of the noble truths of Buddhism is that
suffering has a cause and that by finding and attacking the
cause, one can alleviate suffering. We know that being
overweight, being sedentary as opposed to getting regular
exercise, not paying better attention to what we eat, or not
having simple blood tests done periodically leads directly
down a path to diabetes. The most effective treatment or
cure possible lies within the hands of each of us whether or
not we have a family doctor. If we take action on the
knowledge we have about the harmful health practices that get
us into trouble such as those described in this article, or
smoking, or not wearing a seatbelt we take immediate actions
that may well be as valuable as anything a physician can
prescribe.
The plagues that cause us to suffer as
individuals and harm our communities often have root causes
inside each of us and remedies, as well, which can spring from
more accountable and responsible individual actions and
attitudes.
Understanding why this or any other source of
suffering enters our lives helps us plan a campaign to attack
and defeat this cause of our suffering. This is only
true, however, if we take that knowledge and add to it a
compelling sense of urgency to get on with it!!
In the case of diabetes, early onset often has no or few
symptoms. Prevention, based on knowledge of what
terrible suffering could lie ahead, is the best way to defeat
the disease!
Like many things in life, you have to want to
be on your own team before you can expect anyone else to
join.
Phil Rosenberg
The HR Doctor http://www.hrdr.net/
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