Is it time for a different approach to type 2 diabetes?
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I recently wrote an article in The Guardian reflecting on what we have learned in the fifty years since the first ever national diabetes survey was carried out, in the small island nation of Nauru.
Type 2 diabetes is a global population health phenomenon that both drives, and is driven by, major societal transformations. Since it was first identified at “epidemic” levels in the 1970s, researchers have attributed type 2 diabetes to people eating too many calories and doing too little physical activity. Interventions based on this approach have led to little improvement. Approaching diabetes as an outcome of the purposeful behaviour of societies – rather than focusing on calorie-consuming individuals – offers a different way in.
In writing the article, I built on my past research and drew inspiration from Bruce Pascoe, Gregory Bateson and Mary Catherine Bateson to try to make sense of why we have seen so little improvement in type 2 diabetes prevalence, and what else we might try.
The article features in The Guardian’s “A Common Condition” series, which draws attention to the immediate and long term dangers that non-communicable diseases – including heart and respiratory diseases, cancers, and diabetes – pose to individuals living in the developing world.
Read the full article on The Guardian.
