Health Propaganda, Exposed
Before you act: Don't stop, replace, or delay any treatment without talking to your doctor.
“You have a combination of two forces. One is to expand the definition of disease ... And second, direct endorsement of specific interventions that [guideline authors] have direct conflicts of interest with.”
Investigative journalism (interviews, payment records, published studies). Not a clinical study.
"This story was supported by the Science Fund for Investigative Reporting" (donor-funded).
An investigation of how the American Diabetes Association broadened prediabetes criteria and of payments to guideline authors.
ADA "ratcheted down its prediabetes A1c threshold from 6.1% to 5.7%," creating "about 72 million potential new prediabetes patients in the United States alone." "Seven of the 14 ADA experts got between $41,000 and $6.8 million between mid-2013 and 2017 from makers of diabetes drugs or candidate prediabetes medicines or devices." ADA says it "has received $18 million to $27 million annually from drug companies."
Payments do not prove that any recommendation was changed because of money; one panelist told Science that payments "did not influence him," and ADA said funders have no influence over "the final outcome."
ADA's chief scientific officer said evidence favored the lower threshold and that prediabetes is a "continuum of risk."