This week in my Pathophysiology course we have been taking a good, hard look at the endocrine system. The main manifestation of endocrine problems today in our culture is diabetes.
It is responsible for about 5470 deaths every week, 1610 amputations a week, many cases of blindness, and multiple kidney failures. And there are over 28,000 new cases diagnoses every week…
So it’s a huge problem with some of the simplest preventions: keeping weight off and exercising so your muscles are taking up sugar and using it right away.
I watched “Supersize Me” last weekend (one of the most disgusting documentaries I think I’ve ever seen) and one of the facts listed in it was that children who are diagnosed with diabetes (type II) before the age of 15 shave 17-27 years off of their life automatically. Considering that the average age of Americans is about 73, this brings the life expectancy of kids who get diabetes before 15 down to the mid 50s. Ouch!
Recently I have been hearing the refrain repeated “we don’t provide health care, we provide sick care.” This is largely true. Nursing school is all about teaching us how to treat those who are sick and dying and are in need of medical interventions. But what about all those preventable diseases that are eating up tax dollars, toes, and people’s lives? They are preventable, but many people either don’t know that or don’t care, which is incredibly sad. But education apparently isn’t the key to this problem, as one of my other nursing professors pointed out (herself being an example of her point.) So if education isn’t enough, what do we do to stop preventable diseases?
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