Tom Udall: “the headlines shout out: ``Healthcare crisis looms.'' ``Diabetes epidemic.'' ``Increase in childhood obesity.''…”

“the headlines shout out: ``Healthcare crisis looms.'' ``Diabetes epidemic.'' ``Increase in childhood obesity.'' Solutions abound, but the one which could make a real difference, prevention, is only paid lip service. We say ``an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,'' but then we fail to reinvent our health policy to make prevention a cornerstone. The facts are ominous, unrelenting and tell it all: An obesity epidemic started in the early 1980s and equally impacts all age groups. Nearly one in four Americans are obese. Obesity is highly predictive of diabetes. One in three children now being born in the United States ultimately will become diabetic. Diabetes incidence increased 61 percent in the last decade; 76 percent for people in their thirties. An alarming British study reported one-third of 5-year-old girls were overweight and showing signs of developing Type II diabetes, formerly called adult onset diabetes. The Surgeon General in his December 2001 report left no doubt where we are headed. ``Left unabated, overweight and obesity may soon cause as much preventable disease and death as cigarette smoking.'' The healthcare costs to deal with these trends are overwhelming and unaffordable. The National Institutes of Health has estimated that diabetes costs the United States close to $138 billion each year in direct and indirect costs. Let me repeat, $138 billion. We cannot afford to double, triple and quadruple these costs.…”