The Diabetes-Industrial Complex

As with the companies that profit from the “military industrial complex,” companies like  Novo Nordisk,  Amylin Pharmaceuticals,  Eli Lilly and  Johnson & Johnson com are only the biggest and most visible parts of the vast “diabetes industrial complex.”   

The Diabetes Industrial Complex,  again like its military model,  is made up of a lot more than visible  corporations.  The diabetes industry includes everything from dedicated hospitals  to specialized food companies and children’s camps.  Unfortunately,  patients are poorly represented in this process.  This is especially true for children  and their parents who obviously go to great lengths  to prevent the ravages of the disease.  There is, however, little reason to be sure  that the dietitians,  nurses,  health food stores,  or even large clinics always operate in the best interests of the patients .

The complex is headed by the American Diabetes Association, an organization with great enthusiasm for promoting diabetes care but little expenditure on diabetes research.  The ADA works with what might be called “Big Diabetes” much the way defense lobbyists work with Lockheed, Boeing, and their compatriots.  This does not say that the ADA is evil, however parents of children with diabetes felt so strongly about the problem that they founded the very successful Juvenile Diabetes Association to fund research.

David Kliff,  publisher of Diabetic Investor,  wrote a very intriguing piece about  the effort to promote a condition called “pre-diabetes.”  As a physician, I have no doubt  that many people would benefit if we could intervene  before their lifestyle , and especially weight gain, led to type II diabetes.  The problem of course is the financial incentive  for the Diabetes Industrial Complex to actively promote a  somewhat ambiguous condition called “pre-diabetes” creating an even greater diabetes epidemic.  Because there can be no precise definition of “pre diabetes,” Mr. Kliff agued that share prices  of the big Pharma companies would increase when investors realized that the market went from the 24 million with actual diabetes to 100 million or more American with  “pre-diabetes.”

Kliff points out that you can’t swing a dead cat without hearing the term “pre-diabetes”–and not just from companies in the drug business. Normal folks are driven to “prevent” diabetes by eating “healthy” (and usually expensive) foods. Physicians are prescribing medications to prevent the patient from developing full-blown diabetes. Naturopaths and health food stores  make huge profits  by sell foods sweetened “naturally ”  as opposed to things contaminated by  “artificial ” sugars like glucose .   The breakfast cereal, Cheerios,  has even decided to eliminate  glucose made from GM oh core and only use “natural ” glucose.    The problem here is that glucose is glucose, a molecule we make in our own cells .

Why is it that anyone take seriously a condition they don’t have? What reason do they have to test their glucose levels, stay compliant with their medication,  or eat some diet  prescribed by a Naturopath? After all they don’t really have diabetes.

Dr. Quick lives in South Carolina where he provides medical advice to diabetics at his website “d-is-for diabetes” http://www.d-is-for-diabetes.com/shareposts.htm

There must be a better way!   One answer  might come from the web .   there are good sources of advice about diabetes, not necessarily including  the American Diabetes Association.   As an example,  I have been impressed  by the advice given  by my own brother-in-law, the retired physician living in South Carolina.   Along with my sister,  he runs a small and poorly visited site that provides advice about diabetes. 

David Kliff is publisher of Diabetic Investor. Click here to learn about Kliff’s efforts to raise money for diabetes by running marathons.