More than 350 million people worldwide have both types of diabetes, according to an analysis published in the latest issue of the Lancet medical journal. It is several tens of millions more than estimated so far.
The causes of the global diabetes epidemic include the expansion of retail networks selling food with low nutritional properties, and high-calorie so-called fast food in developing countries and the growing obesity phenomenon.
The diabetic organism is unable to regulate blood sugar levels. This condition results in heart disease and strokes, and damage to the kidneys, nerves and retina. Every year 3 million people die from diabetes and the diseases it causes.
85-95 percent Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease that often affects overweight, obese and immobile people. It is caused by insufficient insulin secretion or insulin resistance. Type 1 is a distinct autoimmune condition.
Diabetes is one of the most common causes of mortality in the world and our research shows it is spreading almost everywhere. It seems that it will soon be the biggest problem for health care in various countries – assessed prof. Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, one of the authors of the study.
Governments of many countries will find it difficult to deal with the consequences – he warned in a statement for the Observer weekly. Another study author, Martin Tobias of the New Zealand Ministry of Health, in a Lancet editorial commented that diabetes should be monitored globally in the same way as flu.
The three-year study involving 2,7 million participants aged 25 and over was funded by the World Health Organization and the Bill Gates Foundation. Doctors tested fasting blood glucose after a 12-14 hour fast (blood sugar rises after a meal).
In the event that the blood glucose level was lower than 5,6 millimoles per liter (mmol / l), the participants were considered healthy, if it exceeded 7, they were diagnosed with diabetes. Pre-diabetes was diagnosed in people between 5,6 – 7 millimoles.
In the last thirty years, the blood glucose level of surveyed US volunteers has increased more than twice as much as the average for Western Europe. The highest level of glucose in the Western world, next to the USA, was observed in New Zealand, Malta and Spain. Relatively the smallest – in the Netherlands, Austria and France.
In Eastern Europe it is moderate and has not changed substantially in the past three decades. (PAP)