do you think physicals should be mandatory with insurance policies . I went 4 years without a physical and
went from no diabetes to 6.6 ac1. know it was my fault for nor getting a physical . but missed the prediabetes stage . think if ifound about it earlier might have delayed or stoped getting dx. according to medical community
once over 6.5 you are always diabetic . your thought’s.
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Although I think things are changing a bit now, the standard Low GI advice given to pre-diabetics does not, in my opinion, help them prevent diabetes.
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I work with several people who received a pre diabetes diagnosis.Their Dr.s advice, “Cut back on sweets up the exercise etc.” They were told everything was going well, but of course it wasn’t. Then several years later came the news they were now full blown diabetics.
Something needs to change in the treatment protocols for pre diabetes, starting with a more aggressive approach to carb restriction. Many perhaps most will ignore this advice, but they need to be presented all the options.
Most people realize sweets are bad for diabetics, what they don’t realize is that potatoes are just as bad.
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Forcing people to find out more about their health, as mandatory physicals do, has a serious downside that most people ignore, which is that confronting patients with an unpleasant diagnosis they could have otherwise avoided or delayed prematurely imposes on them the horror of having to know they are sick. For example, a friend of mine was a bright, pleasant, beautiful young Harvard graduate, but when she was forced to have a mandatory health exam her doctor pressured her to have a test for the Huntington’s Disease gene, and when she found out she had it, she fell into a deep depression, quit her job, tried to commit suicide on four different occasions, and quickly went totally insane. Thus the benefits of early diagnosis!
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Your post actually is referring to genetic testing. Really not about physicals.
I personally am not a fan of many types of genetic testing for the points you raise. On the other hand, other types of genetic testing such as that which lets me know if I am a good (living - lol) donor match of xxx for yyy is something I would (and have) done with no hesitation. All genetic testing is not the same.
Trying to tie genetic testing back to a physical is a logical leap which I am not prepared to accept.
" … predictive testing cannot accurately predict the age a person with an HD mutation will develop symptoms, the severity or type of symptoms they will experience, or the future rate of disease progression."
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Seydlitz very good point . I had to have blood work for surgery. and found out about db. have not been the same.
in reality that is why a lot of people mostly older men like myself don’t go to the dr. but if I had not found out
about my high bp and db might have had a stroke. but still most day’s I wish I hadn’t found out about db. sorry
about your friend . I think I might have prevented this if I got a prediabetes dx. say a 5.8 but how knows. needs
to be more education and research about this and what can be done to stop it.
Had I known when I was dx pre-diabetic that lowering carbs was the way to go I would have done this. As it was I was told to buy a book to explain Low GI to me and discovered I was already eating that way. So in order to save myself from diabetes I decided to eat more bread, that grainy sort you see whenever Low GI is mentioned. Fast track to diabetes. My sister was recently given the same Low GI advice in the UK when she was told she was pre-diabetic.
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The link between genetic testing and a physical is clear, since both may reveal negative things about your health which you would have preferred not to know, and many years in advance of the problems becoming clinically evident. For example, you may feel just fine, go to the doctor, have a routine test for protein in the urine, and he finds that you will be on dialysis in five years. Now trying going on with your usual optimism about life after you hear that! What becomes of your plans for a career, education, and marriage? You are going to be wasting away, exhausted and deteriorating rapidly, with all your time consumed by the treatment that keeps you alive, and facing a life expectancy of less than a decade rather than forty more years!
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Seydlitz I think that physicals should not be mandatory . but many companies are doing that . some don’t
do it because a lot of people will find out things wrong and have things worked on and their premiums will
rise. my diabetes dx though not as bad as huntington disease has depressed me wished I hadn’t known
about it but had to have blood work for surgery. modern testing is getting to the point that they can almost
tell when you will get this and that and when you will die. I don’t want to know that they can cure so little anyway.
this diabetes an example of what little modern medical can cure.
When I was dx pre-diabetic, I was told to follow the DASH diet, designed for heart patients. Of course, it involved waaay too many carbs—supposedly “healthy” carbs like whole grains. That tipped me right over to full blown Type 2.,
Fortunately, I found this haven within a matter of months and then I found Bernstein…
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Yes, that is how it happened for me. 
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