![]() Howard Frumkin, another of our leading experts on environmental health, puts it in a fantastic presentation, “we have engineered walking and bicycling out of our communities” with community design oriented almost exclusively to driving. Why don’t Americans walk more? Because, as Dr. While I won’t argue that lack of walking or other everyday exercise is the sole cause of weight-related health problems – we all know the issues with nutrition, for example – the correlation is too strong to discount. So: we Americans are first in obesity, and last in everyday exercise. Here is a graph from National Geographic showing what shares of the population in 17 countries walk or bicycle to purposeful destinations: Now, correlate the problem of the alarming rise in these problems with a serious lack of physical activity in the U.S. (The article continues with a very good exposition of the relationship of diabetes and obesity to ethnicity.) Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people without diabetes of similar age. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in our patients with diabetes. More than 2,500 cases of diabetes are diagnosed every single day.ĭiabetes is the leading cause of non-traumatic amputations, eye disease, kidney disease, and a major factor in the development of cardiovascular disease. In general, for every two individuals who have been diagnosed with diabetes, there is another person out there with the disease who is not yet aware of having this condition. The most recent data support having 21 million people with diabetes in this country with millions not knowing that they have this disease. In the United States, probably more than 30% of individuals above the age of 60 years have diabetes (most of which is type 2 diabetes) or impaired fasting glucose. Type 2 diabetes is a serious problem, not only in our country but also throughout the world. Now consider the correlation between obesity and diabetes:Īn excellent (though unsigned) article in Medscape Education summarizes why this should be a major concern: #Unwalkable seriesRichard Jackson, has eloquently reminded us of the seriousness of this problem, which he highlights in a documentary series shown on PBS. One of the nation’s foremost experts in environmental health, Dr. Now consider the trend in the rate of diabetes: The problem is especially acute in America, where the combined share of overweight and obese residents is now well over 60 percent, ranking first among 22 nations represented in this graph from the OECD: Start by looking at the dramatic rise in US obesity over a 14-year period: ![]()
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