Letters: Obesity and the diabetes epidemic

Re “Diabetes a stubborn foe,” Jan. 6

Though the article successfully portrayed indifferent diabetics, it neglected to mention the uncommon diabetics who work out and eat right. I am an 18-year-old diabetic, and while I can attest that diabetes is a terrible illness, most of its consequences can be avoided by putting down the potato chips and picking up a dumbbell.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, something so simple is controversial.

Eric Herschler

Garden Grove

Diabetes patients who store candy next to their insulin should be starkly confronted with the very real possibility of death from the disease. To personalize this danger, clinicians might consider requiring their noncompliant patients to write their wills and discuss funeral arrangements before commencing treatment.

Spencer Grant

Laguna Niguel

Re “Rx for diabetes not pill, but will,” Jan. 9

As director of bariatric surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, I am engaged in the fight against diabetes almost every day. The recommendation by the Diabetic Prevention Program is for obese people to lose 5% to 7% of their excess body weight to prevent Type 2 diabetes, and losing as little as 10 pounds may indeed work for people in the 200-pound range. However, a sizable portion of the population far exceeds that number, and for them, losing 10 pounds isn’t going to cut it.

For those people, more drastic weight loss measures are called for, and for some of them, weight loss surgery might be the only answer.

Overweight adults need to make a lifetime commitment to good health, whether it’s losing 10 pounds, 100 pounds or more.

Scott A. Cunneen, MD

Los Angeles

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