Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Canadian Diabetes Association's Staggering Omissions


Some strange omissions over at the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA).

The first strange omission was noted by my friend Dr. Arya Sharma who pointed out on his blog that despite bariatric surgery being a cure for nearly 80% of type 2 diabetics there's not a single mention of it on the CDA's website.

The second omission was noted by my friend Dr. Jeff Lipsitz, one of Canada's foremost sleep medicine experts, who noticed that despite the incredibly high percentage of type 2 diabetics who are obese and despite the incredibly high association of sleep apnea and obesity, that there was not one mention of sleep apnea screening or treatment in the CDA's 215 page 2008 Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of Diabetes in Canada

While some may not want surgery to cure their diabetes, certainly at least a mention of surgery on the CDA's website would be warranted given the 80% cure rate and the lack of public knowledge of that fact.

Regarding sleep apnea, the International Diabetes Association certainly thinks it's worth mentioning as they point out that estimates put nearly a quarter of all diabetics as having obstructive sleep apnea and therefore made this recommendation,

"the International Diabetes Federation Taskforce on Epidemiology and Prevention strongly recommends that health professionals working in both type 2 diabetes and sleep disordered breathing adopt clinical practices to ensure that a patient presenting with one condition is considered for the other."
So here we have the CDA with a cure that's not mentioned and a comorbid condition that's not being screened for. I wonder what's up with the CDA and these staggering oversights?