£1 million a day, and £55,000 an hour
The above figures are how much diabetes is costing the health services of Northern Ireland and Wales respectively. (I don’t know how the £55,000 per hour was calculated, but if you multiply that by 24 hours in a day, it comes out at well over a million pounds too). Reports by Diabetes UK, and Diabetes UK Cymru claim diabetes is one of the biggest health challenges facing the nation.
Iain Foster, Diabetes UK Northern Ireland director, said: “Diabetes…causes more deaths than breast and prostate cancer combined. But how avoidable is diabetes? Correct diet, correct activity and exercise levels are key, obviously, but how easy is it to know what constitutes ‘correct’?
Diabetes UK has advice to give on the subject - that is one of its roles, after all - and Dr John Briffa gives their dietary advice very short shrift here. And points out that the charity receives plenty of funding from the pharmaceutical sector. (The comments on this particular blog are entertaining, but the volume is such that you’ll need to set aside an hour or so to read them…)
Mark Sisson points out here that as humans we are all genetically disposed towards diabetes, since we evolved to process only small amounts of sugar in our diet.
What significance does this have for runners? The most obvious point is that runners are bombarded with a sugar hard-sell. Energy bars, energy drinks, high-carb diets… Make sure you take in carbs before you run, while you are running and after your run, the message seems to be. But this also is a path towards insulin resistance, which in turn will predispose towards diabetes.
The problem is that it is very hard indeed to train at fairly high aerobic levels - what I would put in the RPE (rate of perceived exertion) range of 14-16 - and to do so every day, or twice a day even, without replenishing carbohydrate levels. There is a fundamental conflict between what Sisson calls ‘chronic aerobic’ (and as a former, and reformed, elite marathoner and Ironman triathlete he has got all the chronic aerobic T-shirts) and the human requirement for insulin sensitivity.
Ironically, walking seems to have the best effect on diabetic health, when aligned with appropriate diet, and this type of low-level activity, mixed up with some intense sprinting and strength training, is closer to how humans have evolved to exist.
So if you don’t want to be part of the NHS’s £55,000-an-hour habit, cut back on the carbs, and beef up the intensity.
Happy training!