Health Wanted: Diabetes
HEALTH WANTED, a weekly radio show and podcast produced in partnership with WABE, brings need-to-know public health headlines and breaks down the science behind trending topics.
The Episode
The topic: Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects over 10% of the world’s population and is the eighth leading cause of death worldwide. This week on Health Wanted, host Laurel Bristow and Mohammed Ali, MD, discuss the factors driving the global rise in diabetes cases and the latest advancements in diabetes research.
The takeaway: Diabetes is a rapidly growing global health issue, with millions of people worldwide unaware of their diagnosis or struggling to manage the disease. Advances in treatments have vastly improved the quality of life and health outcomes of people living with diabetes, but increasing the accessibility and affordability of these treatments is still a major concern.
- Diabetes is a chronic condition involving high blood sugar levels. It develops when the body cannot effectively use or produce enough of the hormone insulin, which the body needs to convert sugar in the blood into energy for the body to use. Over time, too much sugar in the blood can damage organs and other systems in the body.
- There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1 and type 2. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes involves insulin resistance or the body making too little insulin.
- If diabetes goes untreated, it can lead to severe complications including blindness, kidney failure, and stroke. It can also increase the risk of blood clots and slow wound healing which makes people with diabetes more susceptible to infections and additional health problems
- Advances in diabetes treatment, such as insulin and GLP-1 agonists, have improved disease management. However, the high cost of insulin is still a significant barrier for many patients. GLP-1 agonists can help with weight loss, which is often beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes, but they are currently in high demand and of limited availability.
The Interview
The guest: Mohammad Ali, MD
The key takeaways:
- The rising number of diabetes cases can be attributed to several factors. One reason is improved diagnostic methods, which allow for more cases to be detected. Additionally, as life expectancy increases, more people are living long enough to develop diabetes. In the past, infectious diseases and childhood illnesses led to higher mortality rates. As these diseases become less common, age-related diseases like diabetes are becoming more widespread.
- Diabetes may present in more varied forms beyond type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. New subtypes may include those linked to mild obesity, age-related factors, insulin resistance, or insulin deficiency. These different subtypes may also respond to varying treatment approaches, but more research is needed on the topic.
- Many people with diabetes are unaware they have the condition, which is why early detection is important. Assessing your risk is simple and can be done by getting blood sugar and blood pressure tests done. These are often available at many pharmacies and doctor’s offices and can give you a clear idea of where you stand.
- Whether you have prediabetes, diabetes, or normal blood sugar levels, incorporating certain lifestyle habits into your day can significantly improve your overall health. Getting regular exercise, eating a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, avoiding processed meats, getting safe sun exposure, and improving your sleep quality are all ways to help manage diabetes or reduce your risk of developing it in the first place.
The Listener Questions
Should I throw away my black plastic spatula?
A recent study found chemicals used as flame retardants in items that don’t need to be flame retardant, like black plastic cooking utensils.
It is suspected that electronic items that should not be recycled with other items have been mixed in and repurposed to household items. This caused some items to be contaminated with flame-retardant chemicals.
This is a problem because these chemicals, known as PBDEs, have been associated with an increased risk of cancer when they are found in higher levels in people’s blood.
These studies come with all the usual caveats: We don’t know at what level of exposure these chemicals become toxic to your health, and we don’t know how much of the chemical is released when using them to cook or when you eat with them.
The simplest thing to say is that you should not cook with plastic. It should not be microwaved, it shouldn’t be used to make hot foods, and it shouldn’t be used as food containers.
As much as you can switch to using other items, like stainless steel or wood treated with beeswax or mineral oil, the more you reduce your risk of exposure to both microplastics and potentially harmful chemicals.
If you are concerned about health, the best thing you can do is to phase plastic out of your life as much as possible.
Can I cram in workouts over the weekend or do I need to spread them across the week?
We’ve often heard that everyone should get 150 minutes of exercise a week, but does it matter if you spread that out over 7 days or cram it all into one to two days over the weekend?
A recently published study found that when compared to inactivity, “weekend warrior” style exercise reduced the risk of several cardiometabolic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and sleep apnea.
Even when “weekend warrior” workout schedules were compared to regular exercise across the week, there was no significant difference in the reduction of the risk of these conditions.
Another study found that concentrating activity into a few days during the week similarly reduced the risk of several cognitive disorders such as dementia, stroke, anxiety, and depression, when compared to regularly spaced workouts.
Doing something is better than doing nothing. Just make sure to warm up properly! Warming up is a good habit before all workouts but can be particularly important if you have a longer time between workouts.
Catch all the listener questions and Laurel’s answers on the full episode of Health Wanted by:
- Streaming at wabe.org or the WABE app
- Subscribing on Apple or Spotify
- Watching on WABE's YouTube channel
