The following recent article, written by Maria Cheng, The Associated Press and posted in The Worcester [Massachusetts] Telegram and Gazette, is another alarming diabetes newsbrief. I share it with you here, just in case you were not aware of these astounding facts:
“347M people are diabetic No [number] doubled in 30 years…
“London – The number of adults worldwide with diabetes has more than doubled in three decades, jumping to an estimated 347 million, a new study says.
“Much of that increase is because of aging populations – since diabetes typically hits in middle age – and population growth, but part of it has also been fueled by rising obesity rates.
“With numbers climbing almost everywhere, experts said the disease is no longer limited to rich countries and is now a global problem. Countries in which the numbers rose fastest include Cape Verde, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea and the United States.
“Diabetes may well become the defining issue of global health for the next decade,” said Majid Ezzati, chairman of global environmental health at Imperial College, London, one of the study authors. http://mydiabeticsoul.com/a-larger-history-on-diabetes/
“He noted the figures don’t reflect the generations of over-weight children and young adults who have yet to reach middle age. That could create a massive burden on health systems.
“We are not at the peak of this wave yet,” he said. “And unlike high blood pressure and cholesterol, we still don’t have great treatments for diabetes.”
“Still, in Britain and elsewhere in Western Europe, despite growing waistlines, there was only a slight rise in diabetes. Experts weren’t sure why and said there could be several reasons, including worse detection of the disease, genetic differences or perhaps the Europeans were better at getting heavy people to reduce their chances of developing diabetes.
“Women in Singapore, France, Italy and Switzerland remained relatively slim and had virtually no change in their diabetes rates. Numbers also stayed flat in sub-saharan Africa, central Latin America and rich Asian countries.
“Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes and is often tied to obesity. It develops when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin to break down glucose, inflating blood sugar levels. The disease can be managed with diet, exercise and medication but chronically high blood sugar levels causes nerve damange, which can result in kidney desease, blindness and amputation.
“For their estimate, Ezzati and colleagues examined more than 150 national health surveys and studies that tracked Type 2 diabetes in adults older than 25 in 190 countries and territories. They used modeling to estimate cases for another 92 countries.
“They calculated there were 347 million people worldwide with diabetes. Their figures come with a big margin of error, ranging from 314 million to 382 million. A previous study using different methods estimated there were 285 million people with diabetes in 2010.
“The new study was paid for my the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization. It was published Saturday [approximatley July, 2011] in the Journal Lancet.
“Doctors warned the higher susceptibility of certain groups like Asians, blacks and Hispanics to diabetes could dramatically boost future ratios. “Other ethnicities don’t have to be as obese as people of European descent to get diabetes,” siad Dr. Aaron Cypress, a staff physician at Joslin Diabetes Center. He was not linked to the Lancet study.
“It may be, for example, that Indians and Chinese store their fat in more dangerous places, like a pot belly,” he said, theorizing that kind of abdominal fat can send out hormones to speed up diabetes.
“But Cypress was optimistic the trend might be reversed, citing first lady Michelle Obama’s fight against childhood obesity in the U. S. as an encouraging sign. “We need to sound the alarm that people can prevent a slowdown of adult diabetes by making sure their kids aren’t at risk,” he said.”
To conclude, be afraid – be very afraid! I would like to thank author Maria Cheng for her insight and incite. One of my personal missions is diabetes awareness. Ms. Cheng and the other organizations aforementioned have inspired me to inspire you. Having lived with this disease for 52 years as of August, 2011, I have been aware of it being a “massive burden on health systems” for decades now! Listen and Learn – Now!
Final note: The use of brackets, bolded and italicized texts in this blog are of my choosing. It’s in black and white in “My Daibetic Soul – An Autobiography.”
Sincerely, A. K. Buckroth. “AK is OK. ” See www.Buckroth.Wordpress.com for further research postings and articles. Thank you.