Re: U.S. Diabetes Population Grows 86 Percent Over Last Decade



H

Hannah Gruen

Guest
On 9 Mar 2006 08:09:07 -0800, "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Well, I'm going to toss this out and stand back with my flameproof suit
>on. While there are plenty of white people who have diabetes, it is
>even more common in the black and Hispanic community. How successful
>are we at fighting our "drug war" and who are the primary victims? How
>well did we take care of business in Florida with the hurricanes in
>2004 and how well are we taking care of New Orleans and the other areas
>hit by Katrina?
>
>And BTW, I'm a middle class white woman.


I don't think this warrants a flame-proof suit. LOL.

This isn't really a race/class issue, IMO. There are *many, many*
white T2 diabetics, from all socioeconomic classes. Granted its even
more common, statistically, in the groups you and Roger named, but
it's pretty much across-the-board.

I think the reasons it's being mishandled so badly by the medical
community are many and complex. But I really doubt that it is due to
race/class issues to any large extent. I personally think it has more
to do with institutional inertia, over-conformity, and probably
laziness on the part of the medical community, coupled with a big
profit drive (you could read this as greed) of the pharmaceutical
industry.

But that's just opinion on my part.

HG
 
Hannah Gruen wrote:
> On 9 Mar 2006 08:09:07 -0800, "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >Well, I'm going to toss this out and stand back with my flameproof suit
> >on. While there are plenty of white people who have diabetes, it is
> >even more common in the black and Hispanic community. How successful
> >are we at fighting our "drug war" and who are the primary victims? How
> >well did we take care of business in Florida with the hurricanes in
> >2004 and how well are we taking care of New Orleans and the other areas
> >hit by Katrina?
> >
> >And BTW, I'm a middle class white woman.

>
> I don't think this warrants a flame-proof suit. LOL.


I think it does warrant a flame-proof suit when you start playing the
race card and throwing politics and all the bizarre **** above into it,
as if there was some sinister plot linking diabetes in minorities to
the war on drugs or hurricanes. There is plenty of information out
there on how to avoid diabetes and stay healthy. Whether it's right or
wrong is not even an issue, because the same info is readily available
for free to the entire population, independent of race. And for all we
know, it could simply be that some races are more genetically
pre-disposed. But, it's interesting how some minds work.





>
> This isn't really a race/class issue, IMO. There are *many, many*
> white T2 diabetics, from all socioeconomic classes. Granted its even
> more common, statistically, in the groups you and Roger named, but
> it's pretty much across-the-board.
>
> I think the reasons it's being mishandled so badly by the medical
> community are many and complex. But I really doubt that it is due to
> race/class issues to any large extent. I personally think it has more
> to do with institutional inertia, over-conformity, and probably
> laziness on the part of the medical community, coupled with a big
> profit drive (you could read this as greed) of the pharmaceutical
> industry.
>
> But that's just opinion on my part.
>
> HG
 
Hannah Gruen wrote:
:: On 9 Mar 2006 08:09:07 -0800, "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
:: wrote:
::
::: Well, I'm going to toss this out and stand back with my flameproof
::: suit on. While there are plenty of white people who have diabetes,
::: it is even more common in the black and Hispanic community. How
::: successful are we at fighting our "drug war" and who are the
::: primary victims? How well did we take care of business in Florida
::: with the hurricanes in 2004 and how well are we taking care of New
::: Orleans and the other areas hit by Katrina?
:::
::: And BTW, I'm a middle class white woman.
::
:: I don't think this warrants a flame-proof suit. LOL.
::
:: This isn't really a race/class issue, IMO. There are *many, many*
:: white T2 diabetics, from all socioeconomic classes. Granted its even
:: more common, statistically, in the groups you and Roger named, but
:: it's pretty much across-the-board.
::
:: I think the reasons it's being mishandled so badly by the medical
:: community are many and complex. But I really doubt that it is due to
:: race/class issues to any large extent. I personally think it has more
:: to do with institutional inertia, over-conformity, and probably
:: laziness on the part of the medical community, coupled with a big
:: profit drive (you could read this as greed) of the pharmaceutical
:: industry.
::
:: But that's just opinion on my part.

The thing is, if this disease hit those who have class status hard, then
there would likely be a "reaction" that tends to overcome inertia,
conformity and laziness. The sleeping giant can be roused if you tickle it
just right. The weak have little influence with the giant.
 
[email protected] wrote:
:: Roger Zoul wrote:
::: Hannah Gruen wrote:
::::: On 9 Mar 2006 08:09:07 -0800, "[email protected]"
::::: <[email protected]> wrote:
:::::
:::::: Well, I'm going to toss this out and stand back with my
:::::: flameproof suit on. While there are plenty of white people who
:::::: have diabetes, it is even more common in the black and Hispanic
:::::: community. How successful are we at fighting our "drug war" and
:::::: who are the primary victims? How well did we take care of
:::::: business in Florida with the hurricanes in 2004 and how well are
:::::: we taking care of New Orleans and the other areas hit by Katrina?
::::::
:::::: And BTW, I'm a middle class white woman.
:::::
::::: I don't think this warrants a flame-proof suit. LOL.
:::::
::::: This isn't really a race/class issue, IMO. There are *many, many*
::::: white T2 diabetics, from all socioeconomic classes. Granted its
::::: even more common, statistically, in the groups you and Roger
::::: named, but it's pretty much across-the-board.
:::::
::::: I think the reasons it's being mishandled so badly by the medical
::::: community are many and complex. But I really doubt that it is due
::::: to race/class issues to any large extent. I personally think it
::::: has more to do with institutional inertia, over-conformity, and
::::: probably laziness on the part of the medical community, coupled
::::: with a big profit drive (you could read this as greed) of the
::::: pharmaceutical industry.
:::::
::::: But that's just opinion on my part.
:::
::: The thing is, if this disease hit those who have class status hard,
::: then there would likely be a "reaction" that tends to overcome
::: inertia, conformity and laziness. The sleeping giant can be roused
::: if you tickle it just right. The weak have little influence with
::: the giant.
::
::
:: I don;t know what makes you believe that is true.

My preception is that it doesn't happen in the upper status like it does
among the poor and uninformed (which includes most of the middle class).

Isn;t juvenile
:: diabetes skyrocketing and hitting all classes hard enough?

Not from my POV. It's definitely hammering the poor and middle class.

How
:: about all the fat kids across classes? Or the obese adults across
:: all classes.

I guess it comes down to what you see as "class". I personally deal with no
one in the upper levels of social strata, but as you go to higher levels
people tend to be much more health conscious.
For example, they pay attention if their child starts to get fat.

There may be some differences in percentages in one
:: class vs another, but I don't think there is any evidence that it's
:: not hitting mainstream America,

See, I wasn't including "mainstream" America, because I don't consider
mainstream America to be upper class. IMO, "class status (the term I used
with isn't really specific enough)" means significant class status, not
average. I would agree 100% that mainstream is getting hard, but they are
being ignored (IMO) because they generally don't have much influence
individually and don't act as a group well.

and that's why no one cares or does
:: anything. There's already a tremendous amount of info out there that
:: says being fat is unhealthy, trying to get people to lose weight,
:: eat healthy, yet peope are still fat across all classes.

Well, I'm going based on impressions based on what I see everyday. Perhaps
you have some hard data.
 
On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 12:30:53 -0500, "Roger Zoul"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I guess it comes down to what you see as "class". I personally deal with no
>one in the upper levels of social strata, but as you go to higher levels
>people tend to be much more health conscious.
>For example, they pay attention if their child starts to get fat.


>Well, I'm going based on impressions based on what I see everyday. Perhaps
>you have some hard data.


Well, there is definitely some truth to this. Upper socioeconomic
classes tend to be better educated and have better access to health
information and medical care. Not to mention better quality foods.
There also tends to be a higher level of social stigma against
obesity, which will trigger parents, as you say, to "do something" if
a child puts on excess weight.

That said, there are still many, many people in upper socioeconomic
groups who are overweight or obese or diabetic. I live in a very high
income area. What I see at the local shopping center and the local
country club, is a range of weights. There are a lot of
emaciated-looking women, of course. And the older ones show every sign
of well-developed osteoporosis, BTW. But there are plenty of
overweight individuals of both genders and every age. In no way as
many as you'd see in a lower-income neighborhood, though. This is not
a scientific sampling, and there's no way to know how many are
diabetic.

HG
 
Hannah Gruen wrote:
:: On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 12:30:53 -0500, "Roger Zoul"
:: <[email protected]> wrote:
::
::: I guess it comes down to what you see as "class". I personally
::: deal with no one in the upper levels of social strata, but as you
::: go to higher levels people tend to be much more health conscious.
::: For example, they pay attention if their child starts to get fat.
::
::: Well, I'm going based on impressions based on what I see everyday.
::: Perhaps you have some hard data.
::
:: Well, there is definitely some truth to this. Upper socioeconomic
:: classes tend to be better educated and have better access to health
:: information and medical care. Not to mention better quality foods.
:: There also tends to be a higher level of social stigma against
:: obesity, which will trigger parents, as you say, to "do something" if
:: a child puts on excess weight.
::
:: That said, there are still many, many people in upper socioeconomic
:: groups who are overweight or obese or diabetic. I live in a very high
:: income area. What I see at the local shopping center and the local
:: country club, is a range of weights. There are a lot of
:: emaciated-looking women, of course. And the older ones show every
:: sign of well-developed osteoporosis, BTW. But there are plenty of
:: overweight individuals of both genders and every age. In no way as
:: many as you'd see in a lower-income neighborhood, though. This is not
:: a scientific sampling, and there's no way to know how many are
:: diabetic.

I can accept that. I would add though, because I think it's important, that
the relative numbers of folks in upper socia strata are few compared to the
other groups. So while there are enough of them to see "many", the numbers
are still relatively small. And of course, these are just my musings on the
matter.