Psychic Blog

The 14^th November is World Diabetes Day.

Diabetes type 2 came to my attention on reading an article by Michael Mosley for the Daily Mail that serialised his book – The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet and his wife’s (Clare Bailey) subsequent recipe book to accompany: The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book that was written in conjunction with dietitian Dr Sarah Schenker. For those of you who are not familiar with Dr Mosley he was the person that popularised the 5/2 diet.

This new diet has been brought out to tackle Type 2 Diabetes; and is a mix of lower carb and Mediterranean concepts. To get the shocking part out of the way – the calorie intake for the 8 weeks is around 800 per day. Making this still fall within the low calorie/fasting diet type.

Although at its root this diet is tackling Diabetes Type 2, it is for anyone that is concerned about their sugar intake, is overweight, is in the pre-diabetes stage, or has diabetes in the family etc. (although anyone embarking on such a plan should consult their GP first to determine suitability).

Most people in England do a certain amount of nesting in the winter months, we often reduce our exercise, watch more TV, eat more comforting starchy foods and of course in the lead up to Christmas we may eat more chocolate, eat richer foods, and indulge in more alcohol than normal. So perhaps now is not the worst time to take stock, as you may be shocked by some of the statistics surrounding this disease:

Five million people in England are at high risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

If current trends persist, one in three people will be obese by 2034 and one in ten will develop Type 2 Diabetes.

It is currently estimated that the NHS spends about £10 billion on diabetes every year. This is 10 per cent of the NHS budget.

People with diabetes have about twice the risk of developing a range of cardiovascular diseases (including heart disease and stroke), compared with people who do not have diabetes.

Diabetic retinopathy occurs in 40 per cent of people with Type 1 Diabetes and in 20 per cent of people with Type 2 Diabetes. Retinopathy is the most common cause of preventable sight loss among people of working age in the UK.

If diabetes is poorly managed, it can lead to nerve damage, poor circulation and reduced feeling in the feet and legs. There are over 7,000 diabetes-related amputations (leg, foot or toe) every year in England.

(Stats taken from Diabetes UK – State of the Nation 2016 document).