Diabetes Death Watch Slipped Into Health Law by Lilly, Novo

By Drew Armstrong

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- More than 70,000 Americans a year die from complications of diabetes, making it the country’s fifth-largest medical killer. While that sounds dire, Novo Nordisk A/S says the real picture may be worse.

That’s why the Bagsvaerd, Denmark-based drugmaker, the world’s top supplier of insulin, lobbied to get a provision in the U.S. health law that will push doctors to list diabetes more often as a cause of death, Bloomberg Businessweek reported in its May 3 edition. A higher toll means more public and private funding for treatment, detection and prevention, said Michael Mawby, Novo’s Washington lobbyist, in an interview.

<SNIP>

In coming months, regulations will spell out precisely how the new law will be applied. After that, when a patient dies from diabetes complications, such as a heart attack or a stroke, coroners and physicians will be encouraged to list diabetes on the death certificate.

<SNIP>

By not listing diabetes as a cause of death, physicians “certainly underestimate the impact,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the CDC’s mortality statistics branch, in a telephone interview. According to the agency’s data, diabetes is the fifth biggest killer in the U.S. after heart disease, cancer, stroke, and respiratory illnesses.

<SNIP>
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=ad044bJ3k3co

anti-cholesterol drugs, maybe we need to find out why so many people are now insulin resistant. I suspect we've been chasing the symptoms and not the cause.

although it seems to me the best way to do this would be to have coroners list cause of death including contributing factors. "Cause of death = septic shock" doesn't provide nearly as much useful information as "cause of death = septic shock secondary to untreated diabetic foot ulcer."

actally informing people about the mortality associated with diabetes is just wrong somehow... I guess :shrug:


Diabetes is responsible for a lot of deaths and will be responsible for many many more if we don't do something about obesity. Novo Nordisk doesn't need this to ensure a healthy profit from the people of this country.

Novo sells a lot of insulin, they also provide and fund one of the best "how to prevent programs" in the pharmacutical industry for any disease or condition.

My half sister, a lifelong diabetic, suffered a seizure due to low blood sugar while driving. Her car hit a tree and on the way to the hospital she suffered cardiac arrhythmia, which could have been due to the diabetes or the injuries sustained in the crash. She lived for 6 days. Cause of death - trauma sustained in the automobile accident, but it could be argued that cause of death was diabetes.

that in 30 years 40% of the population will have diabetes.