A DANGEROUS DISEASE

It’s hiding your head in the sand, the way Americans think about illness. A disease like diabetes gallops practically out of control, with estimates that 21 million Americans have it and 45 million more could develop it. Yet relatively few people worry about it or alter their behavior to postpone or possibly prevent its onset.

The net effect for many people, when a television news report trumpets a death caused by a flesh-eating disease (a staph infection that affects maybe 1,500 Americans each year), it is enough to make many people panic.

A chronic illness like diabetes, on the other hand, may be dealt with in part through diet and exercise. Sadly, many people mistakenly believe if many others have a disease but are not hospitalized or dying, it must be relatively benign.