Obesity fuels spike in diabetes
2008-12-01 10:41
Chennai - The prevalence of
diabetes worldwide will far outstrip even the sharp increase
currently projected unless rising trends of obesity are
controlled, health experts said on Saturday.
Adult-onset diabetes has been linked to risk factors like
ageing, an inactive lifestyle, unhealthy diets, smoking, alcohol
and obesity. The silent, chronic disease damages the heart,
blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves and was responsible for
3.8 million deaths worldwide in 2007.
The International Diabetes Foundation estimates a current
prevalence of 246 million diabetes cases worldwide and projects
it will hit 380 million by 2025, but experts say these figures
may well be an underestimate.
"The projections are conservative because they take into
account only ageing and urbanisation but not obesity, which if
unarrested, will lead to more cases," Gojka Roglic of the World
Health Organisation's diabetes programme told a regional
diabetes conference in Chennai, southern India.
Roglic said not a single country in the world had shown any
signs of a plateau for obesity.
Tuberculosis
"It's the responsibility of governments to enable
populations to create the conditions where (healthy) lifestyle
is an easy choice rather than something that's very difficult to
achieve," Roglic told Reuters.
"If you don't have a park to walk in, if the traffic is too
dangerous, then people won't be encouraged to walk or ride
bicycles. Or if there is crime and someone will kill you for
your bike, then you won't be encouraged to cycle."
Anthony Harries, senior adviser with the London-based
International Union Against Tuberculosis (TB) and Lung Diseases,
warned of the increased risks of developing active tuberculosis
that come with diabetes.
"It was recognised even in ancient Roman times that people
with urine that was sweet had increased risk of tuberculosis,"
he told the conference, adding that a diabetic was three times
more likely to develop active TB than a non-diabetic.
Weakened immune system
One in every three people in the world is infected with TB
bacilli. But not everyone who is infected with TB gets sick.
Chances of developing active TB rise when one's immune system is
weak, for example when compromised by a chronic illness.
India carries the highest diabetes burden in the world, with
41 million cases in 2007, projected to hit 70 million by 2025.
The problem is worsening in rural India, which now has a
prevalence of 9.2 percent among people aged 20 years and older,
up from 2.2 percent in 1983. The rate in urban areas is 18.6
percent, compared with 11.2 percent in 1998.
Apart from a more sedentary lifestyle, experts say the
propensity for diabetes among Indians may also be due to a
switch, linked to rising affluence, to eating polished rice
which has much more sugar than crude, unpolished rice.
Genetics may also play a part.
'Famines are gone'
"Years ago, people had famines and then they had plenty.
During times of plenty, food will be stored, so when there is
little food in the next three months, they burn off all that,"
said Viswanathan Mohan, a diabetes specialist who runs a
programme to reduce diabetes and its harms in the countryside.
"Now the famines are gone, it is feasting all the time but
the genes have not changed because this has just happened over
30 years.
" So when you overeat and reduce physical activity and
when you have 'thrifty genes' (geared towards storing energy),
you are heading towards diabetes," Mohan said.