Statistics and how they relate to me

Been doing some internet research. Reading the Australian Bureau of Statistics snapshot on Diabetes 2004/5, some interesting, scary figures emerge relating to people in Australia with Type 2 diabetes.

• Over 90% took their prescribed medication
• Over 80% had modified their diet due to the diabetes

However:

• 69% of people with diabetes were overweight/obese, compared to 51% of the general population. (OK, it's a risk factor. But they weren't all diagnosed in the last few weeks or months - some have had it for years).
• Amongst those who reported taking action for diabetes, 30% reported exercising most days.
• In 2004-05, 74% of those with diabetes aged 15 and over had no, or low levels of exercise, compared to 69% of those without diabetes (after adjusting for age differences)

So even though exercise is one of the standard prescribed treatments/actions to take, even fewer people with diabetes exercise than the rest of the population. Over two thirds don't exercise - they can't all be frail, elderly people....

And then:

• Amongst those who reported taking action for diabetes, 18% of persons lost weight in response to their diagnosis of diabetes. So one thing within the control of the patient - it's not easy, but it's possible - is not changed in over 80% of people with diabetes. However diets are being modified, it's clearly not making a difference for many people.

Just to be even scarier:

• From the ABS 2003 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, it was estimated that about 357,000 persons with a disability had diabetes (approximately 9% of all persons who reported a disability). Of these, about 86,000 reported diabetes as their main disabling condition (ABS 2004).
• In 2004 a total of 8.9% of deaths (approximately 11,700 deaths) were related to diabetes.

Another document: the Australian National Priorities 2007-2008 goes through the many costs associated with diabetes, and figures such as lower workforce participation (around 50% compared to the non-diabetic average of around 70%) and then arrives at this key point:

• Research also demonstrates that complications are the major driver of all costs in diabetes care.

So the avoidance of complications is critical, not just for the national budget, but on a personal level. All the scary stats about blindness and amputation and kidney failure and heart disease rest on the presence of complications. A good quality of life rests on avoidance of complications.

In my daily life, this then means:

• care with diet
• commitment to exercise
• consistency with medication
• conscientiousness with bgl readings (recording them and achieving numbers within range)

These are all the things I can control. I won't be perfect, but I can aim for my best shot. I KNOW I'm not perfect.

Realistically, with the numbers I had at diagnosis, I'm apparently unlikely to ever get off medication, and am likely in 5-10 years to need insulin to maintain good bgl numbers. Don't really want to think about that much now. The diabetic educator remarked that, with those diagnosis numbers, it was only the action I'd taken in relation to diet and exercise that had staved off needing insulin now. That's scary. Good, and scary. She said that 75% of my beta cells are probably exhausted already, so the remainder - which will, over time, fail, as this is a progressive disease - need the prop of medication.

Someone asked me the other day how much weight I had to lose. The next five kilos, I answered. And then the five kilos after that....

It's not worth thinking in the big numbers. Work on today, and tomorrow.