Exactly right. I remember when "they" decided to lower the threshold for diabetes several years ago. Overnight there were millions more "diabetics."
There are a couple drugs I do know changed my life, Thyroid Support and the 2 older class of BP meds and I know that pushed 120/80 range is horsepuckey, our BP changes every minute with many many things we do thru our day. And knowing the number of dummies out there, people panic if they can't keep the 120/80????? Pharma is about drugs drugs drugs..those who own pharma stocks are doing pretty good I'd say....I'd NEVER consider that purchase.....
When I was in the hospital, I got a shot of blood thinner each AM. I was told it was to keep me from getting blood clots. For me, doctors and RN's know more than I do, so I get/take what is requested of me.
This is not directed at you personally... -First off, if you have zero medical training, then a doctor knowing "more than" zero is a pretty low threshold. -Second, doctors will prescribe a drug because if the patient should have--for example--a heart attack, the doctor may be facing a lawsuit, even though that drug would not have prevented it. So now it's not the doctor knowing more than we do, it's the lawyers knowing more than the doctor does. So the doctor prescribes an unneeded med to lower his legal exposure. -Third, lots of doctors are employees of medical corporations. As such, those doctors do not work for us. They take direction from others. -Fourth, every time a second opinion disagrees with the initial diagnosis, a angel gets its wings a doctor is wrong. -Fifth, look at all the garbage going on now where "sex reassignment" surgery is being performed on 14 year old kids. That work is promoted by doctors and being done by doctors. They butcher and destroy for non-medical reasons. I get what you're saying. You and I don't have the skills to diagnose every malady that we get. But no human is deserving of 100% trust. For goodness sake, people are more skeptical of mechanics than they are of an equally imperfect human that hands them drugs and says "Swallow this." Maybe I'm jealous of those who completely trust the medical community. You walk out satisfied with the diagnosis and get on with your life, while I argue with the guy and then come home and spend hours on medical websites. I guarantee that you have way less stress in your life than I have in mine. And I bet your doctors like you way more than mine like me. In the long run, you may be better off than I am. (I'm getting déjà vu. We've done this before, haven't we? )
A lot of medicine is based on legal pressure. If a "standard of care" is established and a doc does something that goes against the standard of care (mostly established by Big Pharma) and something goes awry or the patient does something stupid, the doc is subject to a malpractice lawsuit. I wonder what the laws would be like if they were dictated by doctors. I think I would like to see a courtroom in which doctors stood in judgement of anything a lawyer did in his/her practice. I'll bet trials would be interesting.
That's a whole nuther topic: How perverted have market incentives and daily human interactions become because the vigorous defense (or lobbying for) one's client (with no regards to Merit) has zero ethical limitations?
Do you remember when that was ? Reason for my asking. It seems too me that about ten years or so ago ? we almost never heard of diabetes . Now suddendly there is a TV commercial about some medicine to control it ... every damn commercial break ! And now it's diabetes this and diabetes that. Fear the doughnut ...... !!
From what I can find on Google, it was around 1998 or so. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/1998/1015/p1355.html That also introduced the classifications of Type 1 or Type 2, plus the brand-new scare tactic, "Pre-diabetic."
If I remember correctly, the "Pre-Diabetic" state was related to Metabolic Syndrome. It all occurred when they removed fat from prepared food just as the microwave-induced "prepared food" thing became a mania. Sugar was substituted for fat to make the food taste similar, then high-fructose corn syrup was substituted for sucrose as a cost-saving idea.
Pre-diabetic is what I was told I was, in 2016, I think they still say I am ... My last A1C was 6.4 so I dunno ..... ?
My A1C has been in that range, but when I had some lab work done by my nephrologist, I asked him to throw a fasting glucose test in the mix. The "normal" range (because all humans are identical, right?) is 74-99mg, and I was at 93mg.
The A1C is a better indicator of diabetes, since it provides a 3-month average of your blood sugar levels and not a 1-day fasting level like the blood glucose test. Let's face it, most of us are not "fasting" on a daily basis. "A normal A1C level is below 5.7%, a level of 5.7% to 6.4% indicates prediabetes, and a level of 6.5% or more indicates diabetes. Within the 5.7% to 6.4% prediabetes range, the higher your A1C, the greater your risk is for developing type 2 diabetes."