The Lifetime Costs of Type 2 Diabetes Can be Reduced by Reversing or Delaying the Progression from PreDiabetes
A recent study has demonstrated for the first time that the lifetime costs of Type 2 diabetes can be reduced substantially with appropriate interventions at the pre-diabetic stage, announced Ethical Alternative Products, supplier of premium grade alpha lipoic acid.
Wyckoff, NJ (PRWEB) August 20, 2013
A new study performed by X. Zhuo, et al. at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported in the September 2013 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine*, shows that a person with Type 2 diabetes may spend an average of $85,500 to treat the disease and its complications over his or her lifetime. If a man is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes between the ages of 25 and 44, the expected lifetime costs are $124,700, and for a woman $130,800. Treating complications due to diabetes account for 53% of lifetime costs, with more than half of this cost attributable to damage to large blood vessels, which can lead to coronary heart disease and stroke.
“This is a different approach to a calculation of the costs of diabetes,” said Richard Ratner, M.D. chief scientific officer at the American Diabetes Association, quoted in an article in Nephrology News & Issues**. “A better way of doing it is to note that in 2012, in the U.S., we actually had $176 billion in direct medical costs treating people with diabetes,” he said. “This is up 40% in five years.”
The authors of the CDC study* concluded that effective interventions that prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and diabetic complications might result in substantial long-term savings in healthcare costs. The substantial lifetime medical cost highlights the potential economic return of diabetes prevention. Policymakers have called for additional efforts to prevent type 2 diabetes, particularly among people who are at high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. Major clinical trials from the U.S. and other countries have established that, among those with elevated glucose levels, structured lifestyle modifications can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 40%–60%.
A recent article*** in the August 2013 issue of NutraIngredients-US, cites a Frost & Sullivan report indicating that 1 in 3 Americans is expected to develop Type 2 diabetes by 2050, and that foods and supplements targeting pre-diabetics and Type 2 diabetics would appear to have enormous potential. Frost & Sullivan executives stated that: “Solutions are out there, citing alpha lipoic acid (claimed to improve the body’s ability to use insulin and lower blood glucose levels), chromium (claimed to help control blood glucose levels), and cinnamon (claimed to enhance insulin signaling pathways and assist with regulating blood glucose levels), but awareness remains low.”
“Ethical Alternative Products is in complete agreement with the conclusions reached in the above studies, and believe that our ThioGel product can play a major role in supporting lifestyle changes aimed at halting or reversing the progression from pre-diabetes to Type 2 diabetes,” stated Gerald Bruno, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of Ethical Alternative Products. “The high bioavailability ThioGel formulation is unique among commercial alpha lipoic acid products, and has been used successfully by integrative medicine practitioners for more than 10 years,” stated Bruno. Ethical Alternative Products is making an effort to increase the awareness of the benefits of supplementing lifestyle changes with high quality and high performance natural products, by making ThioGel solubilized alpha lipoic acid available for a 60-day free trial supply at http://www.thiogel.com. “While reducing the national burden of healthcare costs associated with diabetes care is an important objective, reducing the individual human toll associated with the devastating consequences of diabetic complications is of far greater importance,” stated Bruno.