Please have a look at the date below:
1.Global Projections for the Diabetes Epidemic: 2003-2025
This slide shows the global projections for diabetes from the year 2003 to 2025.[1] In 2003, there were about 194 million people with diabetes in the world; and the number is going to swell to about 333 million by 2025, a more than 70% increase. One of the biggest burdens is in Southeast Asia with the largest population in the world where, already, we have 39 million people with diabetes. This number will more than double in the next 20 years or so. But the prevalence is increasing in every part of the world—in Europe, in South America, in the Middle East, and the African continent.
In the United States, there will be a 57% increase in the total number of patients with diabetes, increasing from about 22 million currently to approximately 36 million.
2.Diabetes and Prediabetes in US
In the US, according to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it has been estimated that about 10% of US adults have diabetes; that is more than 21 million people.[2]
Nearly one-third of all people with diabetes are still not aware of the diagnosis because of the insidious nature of this disease. We are making some progress. This number used to be 1 out of 2, but now it is 1 out of 3. There are still a lot of people who are unaware of their diagnosis.
In addition to these people with diabetes, 26% of US adults have what is called impaired fasting glucose, meaning a fasting blood glucose level between 100 and 125 mg/dL. These are the people who are going to be the core from which new patients with diabetes will be diagnosed in the coming years. If you add the prediabetics and diabetics together, 35% of US adults have either diabetes or impaired fasting glucose, roughly 73 million people. It is a huge problem.
Of course, part of the problem is that our lifestyle has changed over the years. We are seeing an explosion not only of diabetes, but an explosion of our abdominal girth. We are sitting on our butts for too long and not cutting down the number of calories; in fact increasing the number of calories.
Even younger adults, including children and adolescents, are now at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. In countries like Japan, type 2 diabetes is more common in children than type 1 diabetes.
3.Obesity in US Children and Teenagers
These are some of the recent data that came out in The New England Journal of Medicine, addressing the explosion of diabetes in the children and adolescents in the US.[3] Prior to 1970, about 4% to 5% of the children between the ages of 6 to 11 or 12 to 19 years had obesity, defined by the current criteria for body mass index (BMI) adjusted for age and gender. But by year 2002, this number has quadrupled. It is not difficult to imagine, therefore, that we will begin to see not only prediabetes, but also perhaps diabetes if nothing is done about changing the lifestyle right from the early stages of life.
4.Parallel Epidemics of Diabetes and Obesity
One of the very good examples of why we think environmental factors and lifestyle are more important in this explosion of diabetes rather than genes is shown in this slide.[4] Clearly, the genetic factors are important. You must have the genetic factor for the predisposition of diabetes. But what you add on to that in your lifestyle is actually a lot more important.
5.Nature vs. Nurture: Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes in Pima Indians in Mexico and the US
These are data published recently in Diabetes Care, looking at Pima Indians who live in the US and Pima Indians who live in the rural, indigenous climate in Mexico.[5] Also shown are the non-Pima Mexicans living in Mexico. The same Pima Indians, whether they are men or women, who live in the US have at least a 4-fold greater prevalence of diabetes compared with the Pima Indians with similar genetic background living in Mexico. There are many similar examples in various parts of the Pacific Coast islands or other indigenous populations, who have migrated from Australia or from India or China, and many other countries.
Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/551055
