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Archived Comments for: The Unite for Diabetes campaign: Overcoming constraints to find a global policy solution

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  1. Kudos

    Ian Blake Newman, The Lifestyle Center of America / SUNY Rockland

    20 February 2008

    Siegel and Narayan have really hit upon the fundamental challenges confronting the global effort (or lack thereof) to combat diabetes. My colleagues and I (Stuart A. Seale MD and Franlin House MD) have been on the road spreading a similar message about how the former "diseases of kings" are rapidly spreading through the non-Western world, thanks in part to the "McDonaldization" of diets. Dr. House has seen this for decades in Micronesia, where Type-2 diabetes was nearly unheard of two generations ago, and is now rampant, even among the young. In our opinion, the key to stopping this tsunami of diabetes is lifestyle modification, not more medicine, though of course this is easier said than done. Like our colleague T. Colin Cambpell who authored The China Study, we're gravely concerned about the influence of our American/western culture of abundance on the rest of the world. We're very glad Globalization and Health has decided to highlight this critical issue.

    Ian Blake Newman

    Competing interests

    I co-authored the mass-market book, The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle, which outlines a lifestyle medicine approach, specifically a plant-based diet, to combat diabetes and reverse the disease process where possible. The book includes details of the global diabetes catastrophe, and lays the blame on a western culture of abundance.

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