The Diabetes Bonanza
Like all the other devastating diseases, diabetes is also all about the money – Big Money. The Diabetes Epidemic has been a bonanza for the Healthcare Industry. It is one of the major components in the “revenue generating diseases” that are supporting the growth of the global Healthcare Industry.
Diabetes contributes billions of dollars to the coffers of Healthcare Industry. The worldwide sales of diabetes drugs was 27.3 billion in 2008, in 2013 it totaled $41 billion, and in 2016 it crossed the $58 billion mark.
According to the American Diabetes Association’s research, the total costs of diagnosed diabetes have risen to $298 billion in the U.S. – This figure represents a 44% increase over a five year period. Almost 50% of US adults (120 million) are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. Each patient directly pays thousands of dollars annually for diabetes medicine.
More than 420 million people worldwide are estimated to have diabetes – nearly an nine fold jump since 1985. According to the World Diabetes Foundation, nearly 4.8 million people die every year due to blood sugar disorder. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the US (based on number of death certificates, NIDDK) – A justifiable little price for the Big Prize to Big Pharma!
But, more than the Hundreds of Billions of dollars in ‘direct contribution’ to the Big Pharma, diabetes is also the ‘door opener’ for other major revenue generating diseases. Diabetes leads to High Blood Pressure, Heart Diseases, Cancer, Renal Diseases, and a plethora of other complications – all instrumental in syphoning out billions of dollars from the public into the deep pockets of the Healthcare Industry’s.
World Health Organization states in it’s Global Report on Diabetes that over time diabetes can damage the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves, and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Such damage can result in reduced blood flow, which – combined with nerve damage (neuropathy) in the feet – increases the chance of foot ulcers, infection and the eventual need for limb amputation.
Diabetic retinopathy is an important cause of blindness and occurs as a result of long- term accumulated damage to the small blood vessels in the retina. Diabetes is among the leading causes of kidney failure.
WHO estimates that, globally, 422 million adults aged over 18 years were living with diabetes in 2014.
Cost of Diabetes Hits 825 Billion Dollars a Year
According to The Harvard University School of Public Health Research Report (April 2016), the annual cost (Revenue for the Healthcare Industry) of diabetes has already crossed the $825 billion mark as the number of adults with diabetes reaches 422 million worldwide.
The team adjusted their results to account for diabetes becoming more common as a person ages and for some countries having older populations. Using age-adjusted figures, they found that in the last 35 years, global diabetes among men has more than doubled—from 4.3% in 1980 to 9% in 2014—after adjusting for the effect of aging. Meanwhile diabetes among women has risen from 5% in 1980 to 7.9% in 2014. This rise translates as 422 million adults in the world with diabetes in 2014—which has nearly quadrupled since 1980 (108 million).
The team also calculated the annual cost of diabetes—which included the cost of treating and managing the disease and its complications, such as limb amputations. This was calculated in International Dollars. The global cost was 825 billion dollars per year, with the largest cost to individual countries being in China ($170 billion), the US ($105 billion), and India ($73 billion). The authors added that the calculation did not include work days lost due to diabetes, which would make the costs far greater if incorporated.
One half of the 422 million adults with diabetes in 2014 lived in five countries: China, India, the US, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Based on cost estimates from a recent WHO systematic review, it has been estimated that the direct annual cost of diabetes to the world is more than US$ 827 billion . The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that total global health-care spending on diabetes more than tripled over the period 2003 to 2013 – the result of increases in the number of people with diabetes and increases in per capita diabetes spending .
It is Your Health & Big Monney For The Industry
Healthcare Industry is the fastest growing industry globally — but, it’s growth in the US ‘market’ is astounding! If you search for the best performing sector for investment, you will note that the Healthcare is at the top of the list, doesn’t matter which analytical engines you use.
The Industry boast a growth rate in double digits – irrespective of economic conditions.
In order to ensure its growth and to increase its profit, the Healthcare (sic) Industry works simultaneously on two fronts:
- Increase its ‘customer’ base, and
- Invent, and cause to spread new diseases to its existing and new customers.
These two objectives are achieved by keeping the existing customers perpetually sick – never to let them enjoy wholesome health. In the process of treating an ailment, it sows the seeds for a more complex and serious aliment.
This is, in fact, The ‘Disease Care Industry’ – Not the Healthcare Industry. And, its business model is to promote pain, sickness, and diseases – Not Health.
The fact is; Once The Industry’s customer, always a customer.
When it comes to promoting the ailments and creating new diseases, The Healthcare Industry is the Master of Innovation. They start packing poison into your body since your birth. They poison your water. They poison your food: Think before taking a bite of that ‘burger’, or having a sip of that Cola.
Diabetes brings big money to the Big Pharma – But, to you it only brings pain and sufferings.
Knowledge is the power – you need to differentiate between the disinformation promoted by a greedy Healthcare Industry and the hard facts. It is your health and, as such, it is your responsibility.
Do you really believe that this industry that thrives on your disease, pain, and sickness, and has become accustomed to such obnoxious revenues, will be working for the elimination of diseases – Where will the revenue come from if you are fit and healthy?
Recognize the blunt fact: to The Industry, you are just a customer. What good are you to the Healthcare Industry if you are healthy?
Do you really expect the Healthcare Industry to wash its hand of hundreds of billion of dollar and let the diabetes disappear?
References Include:
- WHO Mortality Database [online database]. Geneva: World Health Organization; Causes of Death
- Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030. Mathers CD, Loncar D. PLoS Med, 2006
- Dr. John A. McDougall, M.D. & Mary McDougall The Latest Scams from the Diabetic Industry
- “Material Need Insecurities, Control of Diabetes Mellitus, and Use of Health Care Resources.
- Results of the Measuring Economic Insecurity in Diabetes Study” JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(2):257-265.
- Singh GM, Danaei G, Farzadfar F, Stevens GA, Woodward M, Wormser D et al. The age-speci c quantitative effects of metabolic risk factors on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes: a pooled analysis. PLoS One 2013; 8(7):e65174.
- Danaei G, Lawes CM, Vander HS, Murray CJ, Ezzati M. Global and regional mortality from ischaemic heart disease and stroke attributable to higher-than-optimum blood glucose concentration: comparative risk assessment. Lancet. 2006;368:(9548)1651–1659.
- John McDougall, MD: YouTube — The Latest Scams from the Diabetic Industry
