There are two ways to attempt to solve any problem: The easy way and the right way.

We continually demand to reach for the "easy" button.  Thus, when we have a medical problem we reach for the pharmaceutical industry -- a "magic pill" to treat or cure whatever ails us. 

This is appropriate when the problem is, for example, a bacterial infection.  Antibiotics are clearly one of the great innovations of history and have saved literal millions by providing the "markers" that the body needs to find and eliminate bacterial invaders.

But when it comes to many other conditions the exact opposite applies.  Type II diabetes is one of these, especially among teens:

LOS ANGELES — New research sends a stark warning to overweight teens: If you develop diabetes, you'll have a very tough time keeping it under control.

A major study, released Sunday, tested several ways to manage blood sugar in teens newly diagnosed with diabetes and found that nearly half of them failed within a few years and 1 in 5 suffered serious complications. The results spell trouble for a nation facing rising rates of "diabesity" — Type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity. 

The problem is that the disease itself is caused by obesity.  That is, eating too much and moving too little.  The means to prevent the disease and, in its early stages to halt and reverse it, is to eat less and move more and at least as importantly getting the damned simple carb explosion out of the diet.

But that's not "easy."  It requires damaging these poor darlings' "self-esteem" and telling them the truth -- if you keep doing the things that led you to get fat you're going to die.

It requires that we tell people the truth and expect them to deal with the consequences of their actions, whether for good or bad.  It requires personal accountability.  And it requires that we stop demanding the damned "easy" button for everything that ails us as people and as a nation.

This problem is not limited to teens and diabetes.  It is in fact true for most of what ails America.  It is driving the cost of medical care through the roof and, along with the pharmaceutical industry's "protections" against price competition and forced cost-shifting imposed upon us all it has led to the Federal Government's spending on heath care going from $53 billion in 1980 to over $820 billion last year.

This cannot continue.  It is mathematically impossible.  There is exactly one way to stop the impending collapse of both our teens with these conditions and our medical system generally, and that is to tell the truth and make clear to everyone from teens on to Senior Citizens that the choices you make will come with consequences and society both cannot and will not shield you from those consequences.

"A single pill or single approach is not going to get the job done," he said.

Among all the teens in the study, 1 in 5 had a serious complication such as very high blood sugar, usually landing them in the hospital.

What will get the job done is losing the weight and keeping it off.

In short, we must stop lying to people in this area as in others.

There is one -- and only one -- known way to solve this problem.  Stop stuffing the damned pie hole.  Get the simple carbs out of your diet entirely, thereby removing daily insulin insults from the body's metabolism.  Exercise more and eat less until the weight comes off and change how and what you eat and therefore what you weigh on a permanent basis.

If done early enough, when the first signs of trouble appear, there's a decent shot at stopping and even reversing the progress of this disease, provided you maintain that discipline through your life.  If you do not take these steps then some of the damage will be irreversible.  If you continue to fail to act then more of the damage will become irreversible and the idea that you can simply reach for a pill to "fix it" is a damned lie that should bring manslaughter charges against all who promulgate it from the pill pushers to the doctor in the office.

Every body is different, every metabolism different.  But this much is true -- if you put more calories into the system than are consumed it has to go somewhere and the only place it can go is body mass.  Metabolism and what you stuff down the pie hole matters as to your ability to manage that process and maintain balance but in terms of outcome it's quite simple -- the heavier you are beyond normal weight the more likely you will suffer negatively in health outcomes.

Period.

We have start telling these patients the truth -- your choices are to either fix your lifestyle -- what you eat and how much you move and therefore lose the weight or odds are you will suffer the ugly and irreversible consequences of this and other diseases such as blindness, amputations and death.

And cut the crap about the simple carbs and cereals while you're at it.  Glycemic index matters.  A lot.  For those with insulin resistance issues (Type II diabetes) it's the real deal and a $20 meter proves this with just minutes of effort.  That the medical and dietary establishment refuses to make this the focus of their efforts is all the evidence I need to find them ethically and morally bankrupt and question whether we are seeing incompetence or rank profiteering at the expense of people's lives.

The pill merchants from the corner doctor's office to the pharmaceutical reps and executives need to be thrown off a bridge with cement blocks tied around their ankles.  Their "path forward" for these young people has no merit and deserves severe sanction, as our refusal to tell the truth in this regard is no different in point of fact than the nonsense that we've run in so many other areas of our economic and personal lives, whether it be housing, offshoring or jobs or anything else with one difference: This time it's the literal lives of young people who hang in the balance, not just economic futures.

The "discouraging" results point to the need to create "a healthier 'eat less, move more'" culture to help avoid obesity that contributes to diabetes, Dr. David Allen of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health wrote in an accompanying editorial.

You just figured this out now Dr. Allen?