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Diabulimia - the world's most dangerous eating disorder

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Diabulimia is when people with type-1 diabetes (T1DM) ration their insulin to lose weight
People with T1DM who reduce their insulin lose weight but increase their likelihood of serious complications and death
Diabulimia is neither an official medical nor psychiatric disease state but its prevalence is relatively high and increasing
Diabulimia is challenging to diagnose partly because it is a portmanteau of 2 separate conditions and people with the condition often keep the bulimic aspect secret
Recently research into the condition and a clinic dedicated to diabetes and eating disorders have been launched in London
These initiatives are expected to increase our understanding of diabulimia, improve screening and treatment options and provide integrated medical and psychiatric support for people with the condition

Diabulimia - the world's most dangerous eating disorder

In January 2019 the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) awarded clinician scientist Marietta Stadler, from King's College Hospital, London, £1.2m to fund research into diabulimia, an eating disorder in which people living with T1DM deliberately and regularly restrict their prescribed insulin dosage for the purpose of weight loss.

Diabulimia is a media-coined term and only recently has it been considered as a separate disease state although it is still not formally recognised as such. We start this Commentary by briefly describing some aspects of the history of the condition.

On 27^th September 2011 Sian, the 24-year-old daughter of UK parliamentarian George Howarth, died from complications related to T1DM. As a teenager Sian had not kept up with her medication, she had missed appointments with doctors and dieticians, and was suffering from depression as a result of the condition. Sian had also developed neuropathy, which is damage to the nerves caused by T1DM. Since his daughter’s death Howarth has campaigned to raise awareness of diabulimia.
In 2012 Maryjeanne Hunt published a book entitled Eating to Lose: Healing from a Life of Diabulimia, in which she describes her struggle with the condition.
On 13^th February 2013 the UK’s South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) published an article entitled, The Growing Problem of Diabulimia. According to Janet Treasure, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Eating Disorder Services at SLaM, “it is estimated that 40% of T1DM females aged between 15-30 regularly omit insulin for weight control”.
In the July 2014 edition of Clinical Nursing Studies, a review paper concluded that diabulimia, “is not often recognized by primary healthcare providers or members of the individual’s family. If diabulimia is detected early, interventions can be implemented to minimize the risk of early morbidity and mortality”.
In January 2017 the UK's first diabetes and eating disorder out-patient service began working with young women living with diabulimia. Until then people in the UK with diabetes and eating disorders have been able to seek help for one or the other of the conditions, but never together. At the time of the clinic’s launch, Jonathan Valabhji, NHS England’s national clinical director for diabetes and obesity, said: “As a diabetes clinician I’ve seen first-hand the devastating impact that this condition can have on people and their families, and so these services are an important step forward in the recognition of diabulimia”.
In early 2017 the UK’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) upgraded its guidelines and quality standards for T1DM to feature psychological support related to the increased prevalence of eating disorders and the potential for insulin omission in people with T1DM.
On 4 August 2017, 27-year-old teacher Megan Davison, who had diabulimia, committed suicide. "In the absence of the help she needed, she couldn't see any way of carrying on," said her mother.
In September 2017, BBC Three aired a documentary entitled Diabulimia: The World's Most Dangerous Eating Disorder.
On 2^nd November 2017, the Scottish Parliament debated a motion on raising public awareness of diabulimia.

Diabulimia

Diabulimia merges the words ‘diabetes’ and ‘bulimia’. Diabetes is a disease in which your body’s ability to produce or respond to the hormone insulin is impaired, resulting in abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and elevated levels of glucose in your blood. Bulimia is an eating disorder where you binge on food and then purge it by vomiting, laxatives, diuretics, exercise or other purging behaviours to prevent weight gain. Diabulimia is a term coined by the media and used by the general public. Although not well-known, diabulimia is a dangerous eating disorder among people with T1DM and describes the deliberate and regular administration of insufficient insulin to maintain glycaemic control for the purpose of causing weight loss by ‘purging’ calories via excess glucose in the urine. While not formally recognised either as a medical term or as a mental health condition in its own right, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM-5), considers that insulin omission in order to lose weight is a clinical feature of anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Diabulimia has also been recognised in the 2017 UK’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for eating disorders.

Insulin restriction and T1DM

To understand why insulin reduction causes weight loss, it helps to understand T1DM, which is a heterogeneous chronic lifetime disorder for which there is no known cure. T1DM is characterized by the destruction of pancreatic beta cells, culminating in absolute insulin deficiency and accounts for between five and 10% of the total cases of diabetes worldwide. In 2014 there were an estimated 422m people diagnosed with diabetes worldwide. The global prevalence of diabetes among adults over 18 has risen from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014.

Typically, T1DM has an early onset, but can occur at any age. It requires regular daily attention, which for children or adolescents can be daunting. The nutritional anomalies associated with the condition have important consequences (see below) and can be a physical and emotional struggle. To be diagnosed with T1DM represents a hard experience that requires subsequent psychological adaptation. Unfortunately, this often does not occur and can be followed by frustration and the non-acceptance of the disease.

T1DM occurs when your immune system attacks cells in your pancreas that make insulin and renders the pancreas unable to produce the hormone, which is needed to allow glucose (a sugar that circulates in your blood) to enter your cells to produce energy. When you consume food, your body converts it into glucose, which enters your bloodstream. Insulin helps to turn glucose into energy. Without a properly functioning insulin system, your body cannot break down glucose so it stays in your bloodstream and can be dangerous.

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Orthorexia: when eating healthily becomes unhealthy

If you are a person living with T1DM you must regularly check your blood glucose levels. Based on these levels and what you plan to eat, you must give yourself insulin. If you either fail to do so, or under-dose, your body cannot absorb glucose and it accumulates in your blood, a condition known as ‘hyperglycaemia’, in which case, your body attempts to compensate for the excess glucose, goes into starvation mode and starts to break down muscle and fat, releasing acids called ketones. The ketones build up, leading to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which can be fatal.

Epidemiology

Data from large global epidemiological studies of T1DM reported in a paper published in the February 2014 edition of Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, suggest that there are 0.5m children aged
It is estimated that as many as 11% of adolescent women with T1DM meet the criteria for a full-syndrome eating disorder. This is significant when compared to the incidence of eating disorders among women in general. It is estimated that between 0.5% and 3.7% of women suffer from anorexia nervosa, and an estimated 1.1% to 4.2% of women have bulimia in their lifetime. A paper in the June 2000 edition of the British Medical Journal, suggests that adolescent females with T1DM are 2.4 times more likely to develop eating disorders than peers of the same age without diabetes, and 1.9 times more likely to display symptoms of an eating disorder that does not meet the full diagnostic criteria. Other studies show that about 35% of females with T1DM have diabulimia.

Signs and symptoms

Diabulimia is challenging to diagnose and many primary care doctors and endocrinologists who treat people with T1DM may not recognize diabulimia among their patient population. This is partly because diabulimia is not an officially recognised disease state, partly because eating disorders and diabetes tend to be treated separately by different specialists, and partly because people with diabulimia may be ashamed and reluctant to seek help.

The most obvious sign of diabulimia is weight loss. Another common sign is poor blood-glucose control, as measured by elevated A1c levels, particularly if the person has a prior history of good control. Health professionals may wish to attune themselves to the classic signs of diabetes and the common symptoms of eating disorders. The former includes excessive urination, extreme thirst, constant hunger and fatigue. The latter includes dietary restrictions and heightened concerns about weight and body image.

Manipulating insulin to control weight

At the time of diagnosis with T1DM people have often lost a significant amount of weight. Regular doses of insulin are essential for controlling blood sugar levels and successfully managing the condition. However, a common side effect of such treatment is weight gain, and this can lead to a vicious circle. Insulin therapy can lead to weight gain; increasing weight may require increasing dosages of insulin to control blood glucose, which can lead to increased hunger and dietary intake, which can increase weight and enhanced concerns about body image.

Deliberately not taking or misusing insulin to cause weight loss is a purging behaviour that is uniquely available to individuals with T1DM. Weight loss can be achieved by decreasing the prescribed dose of insulin, omitting insulin entirely, delaying the appropriate dose, or manipulating the insulin itself to render it inactive. But when you have T1DM, you need insulin to live. Without it, you may lose weight, but more significantly you can lose your sight, harm your kidneys, damage the nerves in your feet and threaten your life.

Diets, social media and the thin ideal

The management of T1DM is further complicated because it also entails the careful selection of food, eating precise portions and the constant monitoring of carbohydrates. Because of the early onset of T1DM and the ubiquitous use of social media among children and adolescents, which often propagate the “thin ideal”; it seems reasonable to suggest that children and adolescents with T1DM are inherently more prone to issues revolving around food. Thus, in addition to manipulating insulin many people with T1DM commonly restrict their food intake, engage in bingeing and purging, misuse laxatives and adhere to overly strict exercise regimens to overcome body dissatisfaction.

In the US the cost of insulin results in rationing dosages

It seems worth mentioning that a significant proportion of people with T1DM in the US appear to be forced into a similar state of diabulimia because of the high cost of insulin, lack of medical insurance cover (about 10% of the US population [33m] do not have healthcare insurance), and relatively high levels of co-payments for medical insurance. These aspects of the American healthcare ecosystem tend to drive a percentage of people with T1DM to reduce or ration their prescribed dosage of insulin, and their disease state then assumes similar manifestations to diabulimia.

According to research findings published in the June 2018 edition of Diabetes Care, about 27% of the 1.25m people in the US with T1DM say that affording insulin has impacted their daily life. For people with T1DM, “access to insulin is literally a matter of life and death. The average list price of insulin has skyrocketed in recent years, nearly tripling between 2002 and 2013 . . . . [and] . . . individuals with diabetes are often forced to choose between purchasing their medications or paying for other necessities, exposing them to serious short- and long-term health consequences,” say the authors.

According to T1International, a charity which advocates affordable and accessible diabetes care, "People (in the US) spend most of their life in fear of losing their insurance, of running out of insulin and the cost going up, or of having to stay in terrible jobs or relationships to ensure they keep their health insurance coverage. . . . In the worst case, folks are rationing insulin which has led to many reported deaths and excruciating complications."

Research aimed at improve treatment

Given the extent of diabulimia and the significant medical risks associated with the condition, more clinical and technological research aimed to improve its treatment is critical to the future health of this at-risk population. Stadler’s research referred in the opening paragraph of this Commentary is significant. Interestingly, the National Institute for Health Research only supports projects which potentially have a, "clear benefit to patients and the public". Stadler’s research is expected to take five years, aims to provide a better understanding of diabulimia and devise a 12-module treatment plan for people with the condition.

Clinic for people with diabulimia

People with diabulimia could only seek professional help for their eating disorder and T1DM separately, but never together: that was until January 2017 when an out-patients’ clinic opened in London specifically for people with T1DM and eating disorders. The clinic is led by Khalida Ismail, Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine at King's College, London and the lead psychiatrist for diabetes at King's Health Partners, London, which is comprised of King's College London, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Ismail wants to unite psychiatrists and diabetes experts. "They never meet patients together and it's an inefficient use of current resources . . . . we'd actually be saving money by joining up services," she says.

Takeaways

Diabulimia represents one of the most complex patient problems to be treated both medically and psychologically. Standard treatments for eating disorders are not usually appropriate for cases of diabulimia. Treatment for eating disorders tend to involve removing the focus on food, which is contrary to best practice for the management of T1DM. It is important for clinicians and researchers to better understand risk factors, screening tools and treatment options for diabulimia. Also, there needs to be better access to diabetes specialist psychological services that can provide the integrated support that people with diabulimia need. The London clinic for diabetes and eating disorders and Stadler’s research are a good start.

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What is Gonorrhoea?

Gonorrhoea is a sexually transmitted infection brought about by bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoea. It is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the UK.

Gonorrhoea is easily treated. In any case, if left untreated in women, gonorrhoea can spread to other reproductive organs (the womb and the fallopian tubes), causing long-term pain, blocked tubes, infertility and ectopic pregnancy (this is when a pregnancy develops in the fallopian tube rather than in the womb). If untreated in men, gonorrhoea can cause a painful infection in the testicles and prostate gland.

As per the report published on 5 June 2018 by Health Protection Report Volume 12 Number 20, there were 44,676 diagnoses of gonorrhoea reported in 2017, a 22% increase relative to the year prior; this is of concern given the recent emergence of extensively drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoea.

It is impossible to know the underlying cause of your symptoms without being tested. Do not attempt to guess which bacteria is present as many produce similar symptoms.

If you simply want to exclude the possibility that you might have gonorrhoea then this is the right test for you. If you have any symptoms of a sexually transmitted infection, then we recommend our END THE WORRY screen in which we test for the most common 10 different infections, including Gardnerella, Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea, HIV, Hepatitis B & more, so we can correctly identify the root cause.

A discreet Test kit is dispatched simply at your given address. The sample is forwarded to the laboratory using our self-addressed envelope. Results are sent via a text message. Lab testing offers accurate results without the margin of errors as compared to the home self-testing kits.

How do I catch gonorrhoea?

Gonorrhoea can be easily passed on from one person to another during vaginal, oral or anal sex. The use of sex toys can also cause gonorrhoea to spread if they are not washed properly or covered in a new condom each time they are used.

Bacterial infects the cells in the cervix lining, urethra, rectum and sometimes the eyes and throat. You cannot catch it from kissing, sharing towels, swimming pools, sharing cups, plates or cutlery.

What are the symptoms of gonorrhoea?

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Women can notice a change in vaginal discharge,- it could increase, change yellow or green or have a strong smell. They may also experience pain when passing urine, itching or discharge from the anus or lower stomach pain. However, some women may have no symptoms at all.

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Men may have a yellow or white discharge (liquid) from the penis, pain or tingling when passing urine, inflammation of the testicles, or discharge or discomfort in the anus. Gonorrhoea in the eyes can cause redness and irritation. Less commonly, gonorrhoea can cause inflammation of the joints and tendons, skin lesions or, rarely, can affect the brain and heart.

Is gonorrhoea curable?

Gonorrhoea is a treatable and curable infection, which goes away after you have taken the antibiotic tablets.

How we test for Gonorrhoea?

We use a small urine sample to test for gonorrhoea. The test looks for the presence of the bacteria that causes gonorrhoea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae. If the bacteria is present, then you have an active gonorrhoea infection.

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Foods That Must Not Feature On The Diet Chart Of Patients With Kidney Stones

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Diet Chart Of Patients With Kidney Stones

Foods That Aggravate The Kidney Stone Disease

If you are suffering from kidney stone, then you must consult with an experienced Dietitian.

The human body is composed of complex organ systems. When all these systems work in union, you enjoy a great healthy life.

But if any one or more organs malfunction, it takes a serious toll on the person’s health. Kidney is one such essential body organ that flushes out body toxins.

Thousands of people suffering from kidney stones reach out to the doctors. Kidney stones are also called renal lithiasis or nephrolithiasis.. Read more about The Diet Chart Of Patients With Kidney Stones

The Diet Chart Of Patients With Kidney Stones

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Foods That Must Not Feature On The Diet Chart Of Patients With Kidney Stones

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Stop teenagers smoking to reduce disease morbidity and mortality and save billions

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UK parliamentarians are proposing to raise the smoking age to 21
Tobacco smoking is the biggest preventable cause of disease disability and death
People that start smoking in their teens are most likely to continue the habit into adulthood
Quitting smoking is more difficult than quitting addiction to opiates
Smoking harms every organ in your body and causes 90% of deaths from lung cancer
Smoking related illnesses cost healthcare systems billions
Some UK policy makers are denying smokers healthcare treatment
UK smokers may cover the medical cost of their habit in taxes
How should we and how do we treat smokers?

Stop teenagers smoking to reduce disease morbidity and mortality and save billions

An influential cross-party group of UK parliamentarians backed by the charity Action on Smoking and Health, (ASH) and 16 other health and welfare organisations, including the British Medical Association, Cancer Research UK, the Royal College of Physicians and the British Heart Foundation, has proposed raising the minimum smoking age to 21 and introducing a levy on big tobacco companies to fund measures to encourage people to quit smoking and to prevent youngsters taking up the habit.

Although the prevalence of smoking has declined dramatically in the UK over the past five decades, the decline has stalled, and policy makers are keen to stop teenagers from starting to smoke. This is because if you begin smoking in your teens you are more likely to continue the habit into adulthood when it becomes difficult to quit, and smoking related illnesses cause morbidity and mortality for millions and cost healthcare systems billions.

Further, it is becoming increasingly common among some policy makers to suggest that smokers should be denied healthcare because they represent an unnecessary and self-inflicted higher burden on healthcare systems due to the illnesses that they pick up as a result of their smoking habit. According to ASH, smoking costs NHS England approximately £2.7bn a year for treating smoking related diseases. Although high, it seems likely that smokers cover the cost of treating their “self-inflicted” illnesses by taxes.

Teenage smoking

The UK's proposal to raise the smoking age is likely to be well received because the British government wants to reduce the prevalence of 15-year-olds who regularly smoke from 8% to 3% or less and reduce smoking among adults from 15.5% to 12% or less by the end of 2022. A 2009 report by the Public Health Research Consortium entitled A Review of Young People and Smoking in England, provides a comprehensive review of smoking and young people and suggests, “Most young people start experimenting with smoking in their early to mid-teens, but smoking prevalence and consumption increases until the mid-twenties”.

Teenage smoking increases DNA damage

Nearly 90% of adult cigarette smokers in the UK first tried cigarettes as teenagers. The continued prevalence of smoking by children and adolescents represents a significant public health challenge. Studies at the molecular and cellular levels suggest that early exposure to tobacco smoking enhances DNA damage and is associated with the induction of DNA alterations in specific chromosomal regions. Chemicals in cigarette smoke enter your blood stream and can then affect your entire body. Adolescence is recognised to be the period of greatest development for your lungs, and therefore it is reasonable to assume that adolescence constitute a "critical period" in which tobacco carcinogens can induce fields of genetic alterations that make the early smoker more susceptible to the damaging effects of continued smoking.

In addition to raising the smoking age, the UK policy proposal suggests that each tobacco manufacturer should pay an annual fee based on the volume of cigarettes it sells in the UK, potentially raising hundreds of millions for the government. Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: “Legislation to strictly regulate smoking used to be considered controversial and extreme by all mainstream political parties but governments now have confidence that tough tobacco regulation both delivers results, and, crucially, has widespread cross-party and public support.” The tobacco industry has fought hard to resist successive British governments from introducing legislation that would reduce its profits.

Tobacco 21

The proposed British policy is not new. In March 2015 the US Institute of Medicine published a research report entitled, Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age for Purchasing Tobacco Products, which suggests that raising the legal sale age from 18 to 21, known in the US as “Tobacco 21”, would significantly reduce youth tobacco use and prevent adolescents from starting to smoke. Notably, the report estimated that, “there would be a 25% reduction in smoking initiation among 15-to-17-year-olds if the age to purchase tobacco were raised to 21”.

According to a paper by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the July 2015 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, three out of four American adults, including seven in ten cigarette smokers, favour raising the minimum age of sale for all tobacco products to 21. Notwithstanding, 11% of adults strongly opposed making 21 the legal age of sale, while 14% somewhat opposed such measures. Today, five American states have raised their minimum tobacco sale age to 21 and more than 425 communities in 23 other states have adopted a Tobacco 21 policy.

Cigarette smoking harms every organ in your body

According to the 2014 US Surgeon General’s Report entitled, The Health Consequences of Smoking: 50 Years of Progress, “the century-long epidemic of cigarette smoking has caused an enormous avoidable public health tragedy. Since the first Surgeon General’s report in 1964 more than 20m premature deaths in the US can be attributed to cigarette smoking”.

Although smokers today tend to smoke fewer cigarettes than in the past, this does not necessarily translate into reduced harm: biochemical indices of smoking intensity have not shown commensurate declines. Tobacco smoking harms nearly every organ of your body and is the biggest preventable cause of disease, disability and death. It causes so many different types of cancer including cancers of the lung, oesophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, colon and rectum, anus, as well as acute myeloid leukaemia. Each year smoking is responsible for some 81,700 and 480,000 deaths in the UK and US respectively.

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Smoking is playing Russian roulette with your life

In wealthy countries such as Britain and the US, smoking cigarettes kills more people than alcohol, car accidents, HIV, guns, and illegal drugs combined. An estimated 36% of all respiratory disease deaths, 30% of all cancer deaths and 14% of all circulatory disease deaths are attributable to smoking. This figure rises to 87% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 82% of deaths from lung, bronchus and trachea cancer.

Nicotine, carbon monoxide and tar

Some experts suggest that it may be harder to stop smoking than to stop using cocaine or opiates such as heroin. About two out of three smokers say they want to quit and each year about half of all cigarette smokers in developed economies try to quit, but few succeed even with professional help. This is because smokers become physically addicted to nicotine.

Tobacco smoke contains a deadly mix of more than 7,000 chemicals; hundreds are harmful and about 70 can cause cancer. However, it is the chemical nicotine, which is the addictive agent, and smoking is an effective way to deliver nicotine to your brain. When you smoke cigarettes, nicotine is quickly absorbed through your lungs into your bloodstream, where it is carried directly to your heart and onto your brain. Because it takes only 6 to 10 seconds for each inhalation of cigarette smoke, nicotine does not get an opportunity to dissipate, so the high concentration of nicotine in your lungs remains in your blood until it reaches your brain. Whilst addictive, nicotine is relatively safe; it is the carbon monoxide and tar, which deposit in your lungs and airways that contain the harmful carcinogens.

According to the 2012 US Surgeon General’s Report: “Of every 3 young smokers, only 1 will quit, and 1 of those remaining smokers will die from tobacco-related causes. Most of these young people never considered the long-term health consequences associated with tobacco use when they started smoking; and nicotine, a highly addictive drug, causes many to continue smoking well into adulthood, often with deadly consequences.”

Large and rising revenues of giant tobacco companies

Although sales of cigarettes are slowing in wealthy countries as people move to vaping, (which is not safe) the annual revenues of the giant tobacco companies continue to rise and their annual marketing and advertising spend also continues to rise. In 2016 the world’s leading tobacco company, Imperial Tobacco Group, generated revenues of some US$39bn and the combined annual advertising and marketing spend of the leading tobacco companies in 2017 was nearly US$9bn.

Price hikes and demand

There is some evidence to suggest that price increases of cigarettes reduce their demand. For example, findings of a 2014 report published by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), suggested that the smoking rate in the US fell by 15% between 2008 and 2012 when the price of cigarettes increased 40%. Today, it is generally accepted in developed nations that a 10% price hike will reduce demand for cigarettes by about 4%. In 2018, New York raised the cost of a pack of cigarettes from US$10.50 to US$13. Australia has started increasing the average price of a pack of cigarettes from AUS$20 and expects to raise it to AUS$45 by 2020. This represents annual 12.5% hikes in tobacco excise tax, which by 2020 is expected to be nearly 70%; the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

As an aside, it is interesting to note that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ global excise tax incidence target of 70% proposed by the WHO could be potentially destabilizing. This is because key economic drivers influencing the illicit tobacco trade, which is now a global phenomenon, are excessive tax levels, which result in a sharp decline in cigarette affordability and organised crime’s willingness to supply illicit cigarettes given the opportunity to gain large profits from tax avoidance. The policy challenge is to reconcile cigarette affordability, tax levels and revenues and consumption.

The effects of advertising restrictions and graphic labelling

The 2014 US Surgeon General’s report suggested that, “The tobacco epidemic was initiated and has been sustained by the aggressive strategies of the tobacco industry, which has deliberately misled the public on the risks of smoking cigarettes”. Advertising restrictions of cigarettes have been in existence in the US since the late 1990s and many other countries have restricted tobacco advertising. For example, China, where about half of the adult male population smoke, has banned many forms of tobacco advertising. Further, several nations have added graphic warning labels to illustrate the dangers of tobacco smoking. Findings of a Canadian study on the effects of such graphic warnings reported in a 2014 edition of the British Medical Journal concluded that they could decrease the number of adult smokers in the US by 5m to 9m. Each year the tobacco industry continues to spend billions on marketing and advertising.

Marketing changes but the same messaging

Because direct tobacco advertising is banned in many developed countries, increasingly marketing strategies of tobacco companies have become more subtle and indirect and feature on video games and on all forms of social media, but the overall message remains the same: that smoking is exciting, glamorous and safe. Research suggests that young people who are introduced to cigarette smoking via such media are more likely to start smoking. Also, tobacco companies give significant price discounts amounting to over US$7bn annually to retailers and wholesalers to reduce the price of cigarettes. They also pay retailers over US$200m to stock and display particular brands of cigarettes, and nearly US$400m is paid annually to retailers and wholesalers in volume rebates and as incentives to undertake their own promotions.

Rationing healthcare for smokers

Some policy makers argue that smokers are an unnecessary and self-inflicted higher burden on over-stretched healthcare systems due to the illnesses that they pick up as a result of their own decision. The annual direct costs of medical care in the UK resulting from smoking related illnesses amounts to £2.7bn. Rationing treatment based on patients who smoke is gaining momentum in the UK. In 2016 the UK’s Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) reported findings of a 2015 survey of Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) leaders, which found that some NHS hospitals were either delaying or denying routine surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements, for patients who smoke. Findings suggested that 39% of CCG leaders were considering new limits on the eligibility of services for financial, value or efficiency reasons. Some reported that their CCG was considering introducing referral thresholds for joint surgery. A 2015 survey of clinicians reported that 75% had witnessed rationed care in their area, and 89% of these respondents said that rationing for smokers was occurring owing to financial reasons. In November 2016, two CCG’s in Yorkshire, UK, announced plans to delay surgeries for many cigarette smokers by either 6 or 12 months if they could not prove they have stopped smoking for two months. In one of the CCG’s almost 14% of adults are smokers.

Factors driving increased demand

Although wounds heal faster and recovery is quicker in non-smokers, there is no evidence to suggest that withholding surgery successfully reduces smoking.

A paper published in a 2018 edition of Medical Ethics, argues that where smoking has, “significant implications for elective surgical outcomes, bearing on effectiveness, the rationing of this surgery can be justified on prognostic grounds”. But warns that although rationing certain surgeries for prognostic reasons is sound, authorities, “should avoid explicit statements, which suggest that personal responsibility is the key justificatory basis of proposed rationing measures”.

It is not only smoking, which increases demand on NHS England’s over-stretched resources. Other drivers include the UK’s aging population, reduced social care budgets, which have led to “bed-blocking”, (where people with no medical need remain in hospital because they cannot be supported at home) and staff shortages. While hospital doctor and nurse numbers have risen in the UK over the last decade, they have not kept pace with the rise in demand for healthcare services.

Smokers may actually be paying for their habits

With regards to rationing treatment for smokers, successive UK governments are conflicted as they are beneficiaries of tobacco excise tax revenues, corporation tax and the taxes of the employees of tobacco firms. When the arithmetic is done, it is not altogether clear that smokers exert a significant extra burden on healthcare resources. Indeed, it is possible that smokers actually contribute more in taxes than is needed to cover the costs of their potential health issues. Without going into a detailed cost benefit analysis, the headline figures suggest that smokers pay for their medical costs caused by their habit in taxes. Although the cost side of the equation is challenging to pin down, we estimate the overall annual smoking-related cost to the UK taxpayer to be some £14bn, which includes £2.7bn direct cost of medical care from smoking related illnesses. Offset £12bn annual cigarette taxes - £9.5bn in excise duty plus £2.5bn of VAT - which 8m UK smokers contribute each year and you arrive at the conclusion that smokers almost cover the cost of their habit.

Takeaways

A range of inter-related factors operating at the individual, family, social, community and societal levels influence whether a young person starts and continues to smoke. This raises a number of unresolved questions that impinge upon health equity, including: How should we treat smokers? How do we treat smokers? Why do we treat smokers in the ways that we do?

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