Nine Percent of Canadians to be Newly Diagnosed with Diabetes over Ten Years

It is not new news that a diabetes epidemic is upon us. Currently, nearly 6% of Canadian adults (about 2 million people overall) are diagnosed with diabetes. Most of these cases are Type 2 diabetes, which is caused by a state of insulin resistance, and often brought on by overweight or obesity.

Predicted rates of diabetes in the near future in Canada are even more starggering.

An investigative report was undertaken by Canada's Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, to try to predict how many new cases of diabetes we are going to see in Canada over the next few years.

The study found that 1.9 million Canadians are predicted to develop diabetes in the ten year period between 2007-2017. This will nearly double the number of currently diagnosed cases. Although the risk of developing diabetes is higher with a higher weight or higher Body Mass Index (with 'obesity' being defined as a Body Mass Index >30), most of the new cases of diabetes will be in the 'overweight' category (with BMI 25-30), because there are more overweight than obese people in the country. Another concerning trend that is being seen is that younger Canadians are becoming affected by Type 2 Diabetes, due to higher rates of childhood obesity. The youngest Canadian with Type 2 Diabetes currently on record is only six years old. Risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes in Canada were identified, and include:

• higher Body Mass Index (you can calculate your own BMI here, in the right hand column)
• increasing age
• being male (vs female)
• people who have immigrated to Canada (compared to people born in Canada)
• being a lower-income woman, or a higher-income man
• ethnic background
  
• having lower levels of education
  

In this report, a Diabetes Population Risk Tool has been constructed, with which the risk of a particular individual developing diabetes can be generated, taking into account various risk factors and demographic data (BMI, age, gender, and other factors). They provide two profiles for comparison:

Profile 1: Female, 33 years old, BMI=22 kg/m2, no hypertension, white, not immigrant, post-secondary education.

Ten-year risk of being diagnosed with diabetes: 1.2%.


Profile 2: Male, 55 years old, BMI=38 kg/m2, hypertensive, white, does not have heart disease, smoker, less then secondary school education.

Ten-year risk of being diagnosed with diabetes: 44%.


The report has some good news too - and that is related to the predicted benefits in prevention of diabetes that could be achieved with simple lifestyle intervention. Based on Ontario population data, for example, it is estimated that by providing individuals at highest risk for diabetes with lifestyle therapy (and provided they adhere), only eleven people would need to be treated to save one person from developing diabetes.

The bottom line: Prevention is Key!!

Dr. Sue © 2010 www.drsue.ca drsuetalks@gmail.com

Read more...

Western Bad Habits contribute to Diabetes Epidemic in China

Modern day China provides an unfortunate example of the toxic effects of adopting more western-style habits of unhealthy eating and sedentary lifestyle: according to a new study, there are now nearly over 200 MILLION people affected by either diabetes or prediabetes.

The China National Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders Study Group published an article in this week's New England Journal of Medicine that spells out the details of this metabolic disaster. They conducted an impressively large study of over 46,000 adults from across China, and tested their blood sugars. They found that based on this sample, approximately 92.4 million Chinese adults have diabetes (more than half of these being undiagnosed), and 148.2 million Chinese adults have prediabetes.

When you consider that these numbers total over six times the entire population of Canada, the implications are simply staggering to try to comprehend.

The underlying contributors to this explosion of diabetes in China are several, but one of the dominant themes is the urbanization and 'westernization' of Chinese society. With the advent of fast food to this nation, obesity has exploded in this society in a likewise fashion. Similarly, Chinese urban centres are coming more and more to resemble our own: motorized transport, increased use of the internet, less focussed exercise.... all of these elements have sunk the activity levels to an all time, Western-style, low. So, it seems that the bad habits of the western world have had a seriously negative impact on the metabolic health of our Chinese friends.

To add to the difficulty of the situation, people of Chinese ethnicity have a higher risk of developing diabetes, due to a higher genetic disposition to develop insulin resistance at a lower BMI. Diabetes onset often occurs at a lower BMI compared to people of caucasian ethnicity (though this certainly varies from person to person).

The way in which people of Chinese background manifest high sugars also presents a challenge. According to this recent study and studies before it, Chinese people have a disposition towards having high sugars after a meal even if they have normal blood sugars in the fasting state. As the first step in screening for diabetes is with a fasting blood sugar, it is possible that some of these diabetes diagnoses could be missed if sugars are not tested after a carbohydrate challenge as well.

The situation in China raises yet another red flag: the global tendency towards a progressively more unhealthy lifestyle is having a serious toll on our health, and raises potentially grim prospects for our futures unless we turn things around.

Dr. Sue © 2010 www.drsue.ca drsuetalks@gmail.com

Read more...