2013, Number 1
MEDICC Review 2013; 15 (1)
Diabetes: The shark in the water
Language: English
References: 0
Page: 3
PDF size: 96.00 Kb.
ABSTRACT
Diabetes is the paradigmatic chronic disease of our time: tragically disabling with devastating complications, and increasingly prevalent—but often approaching silently as a shark. Nearly half of diabetics are unaware of their condition, although the International Diabetes Federation estimates 366 million people worldwide suffer from the disease and it caused 4.6 million deaths in 2011.[1] Diabetes apparently chooses its victims at random, but this is not so. They are mainly people already plagued by unhealthy lifestyles, including poor nutritional habits and inactivity, with the resulting byproducts of excess weight gain and obesity. They are also predominantly people who come from developing countries or disadvantaged population groups in developed nations: by 2030, says the Federation, developing countries will be the home of 82.5% of the globe’s diabetics.