Top Ten facts about Diabetes

1. Diabetes is a silent epidemic and according to WHO there are 246 million people in the world living with diabetes . This is almost 6% ofthe world’s adult population.

2. Diabetes in Asians is five times the rate of the white population

3. India is the diabetes capital of the world. It is estimated that currently there are 40 million people with diabetes in India and by2025 this number will swell to 70 million. This would mean every fifth diabetic in the world would be an Indian.

4.Central obesity or apple shape of the body and insulin resistance is the main reason for diabetes increase in Indians

5. Diabetes causes 6 deaths every minute and one in 20 deaths in the world is due to the condition. Every year it is estimated that 3.2 million people in the world die due to the diabetes or its related causes.

6. Diabetes is an important ‘silent killer disease’ as there is usually no early symptom of the disease. The commonest early symptom is feeling thirsty

7. Almost 90 to 95% of diabetes is of type 2 or maturity onset type; that affects people in their middle age. Type 1 or juvenile diabetes affects 70,000 children under the age of 15 years every year.

8. The major cause of increase in theincidence of diabetes is a sedentary lifestyle . Exercise and diet can either reduce or delay the incidence of diabetes by over 50%.

9. Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure in the world. Besides this every year it is responsible for 5% or 5 million blindness in adults and one million limb amputations. Diabetes is also an important cause of heart disease,stroke and cataract.

10. The current cost of treating diabetes and its complications in theworld is estimated as US $ 215-375 billion . The disease is growing fastest in developing countries where there are more people in the lower and middle-income group.