Education needed to stop diabetes

Researcher Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is quoted as saying: “People should not be dying at relatively young ages from diabetes. That is the key thing.” Surely the key thing is that people, especially children, shouldn’t be getting diabetes in the first place?

Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at Glasgow University, talks about efforts to improve survival and the need for more and more drugs, while Jane-Claire Judson, national director of Diabetes UK Scotland talks about an “action plan” and the failure to recognise that diabetes is a life-threatening condition.

A government spokeswoman is quoted as saying: “We want people with diabetes to get access to the best possible care and ensure that the risk of serious complications are minimised.” All these people seem to be ignoring the old but very sensible maxim, prevention is better than cure. If more health professionals, as well as those who decide on the meals and drinks provided for school lunches and, of course, parents, would only educate themselves as to the main causes of obesity and then encourage children to consume a healthy diet, then the problems of obesity and the many other health problems it causes could be seriously tackled.

Sandra Busell, Edinburgh