Sep 15, 2008
Chris asked Phil Riley why diabetes doesn\'t get the funding it deserves. Diabetes is the silent killer. One could look at a patient with a great A1c and no complications as well as patient with an A1c off the chart with complications, and to the untrained the two patients will seem normal. If all the serious implications/complications of this disease presented themselves in the first years of diagnosis, then funding would not be an issue. Very hard to compete with the stark immediacy of cancer, AIDS, etc. Instead these complications build over many years and ultimately crescendo. And even at this point the complications are entirely manageable despite the hardships/pain they inflict on many people. Funding is crucial.