Actual Good News

I'm lucky that I lost my taste for soda (or PAAAWWP as people in Western PA call it) a long time ago. Think I have a coke about twice per year, some gatorade (not soda, but a sugary - if less sugary - drink) if I'm exercising on a hot day occasionally. Not claiming I live a perfectly healthy lifestyle eating only artisanal vegan air chips, just saying that cutting out what are likely (don't know!) serious contributors to the diabetes epidemic can't hurt. Aside from diet, I've heard stories from people with Type II diabetes who basically cured it by walking. Anecdotes are not data, and I claim no expertise on these issues (though many people who do claim expertise don't seem to know what they're talking about), but I do hope that there is truth to the latest round of advice on exercise. It used to be something like "do hard core cardio for 30 minutes 4 times per week or don't bother." That's a pretty high hurdle for many people. Now it's more just be more active. Walk 10,000 steps per day to send the diabetes away. That isn't actually hard if you have a bit of walking integrated into your life anyway (commute, shopping, etc.). It just requires a tiny bit of additional effort. Anyway, if relatively simple things can stop you from losing limbs late in life that's a good thing.

EUTAW, Ala. — After decades of relentless rise, the number of new cases of diabetes in the United States has finally started to decline.

The rate of new cases fell by about a fifth from 2008 to 2014, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first sustained decline since the disease started to explode in this country about 25 years ago.