DIABETES HAS JUST RECEIVED CELEBRITY STATUS

In my last blog I wrote about diabesity. If you read it, you might recall that diabetes or its precursor prediabetes is a major component of diabesity.

A few days ego BBC NEWS reported that the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that nearly 10% of the global population now suffer from diabetes. This is almost half a billion people.

In a major report, it claims that diabetes has quadrupled in the last 25 years and that high blood sugar levels are linked to an annual global death toll of 3.7 million people, of which 1.5milion deaths are directly attributed to diabetes. To put things into perspective: if this was happening in one single country, for example like Belgium, its entire population would be wiped out within 3 years. The WHO estimates that unless ‘drastic action’ is taken the disease it likely to continue spreading and death-toll numbers will continue rising.

The World Health Organisation dedicated World Health Day 2016 to its campaign for increasing awareness about the rise in diabetes, and its staggering burden and consequences, in particular in low and middle income countries; and to trigger a set of specific and affordable actions to tackle diabetes.

In the 1980s the highest rates were found in affluent countries. But, in a remarkable turn-around, it is now low and middle income countries bearing the largest burden. I will try to discuss the reason for this shift in a future blog.

But for today I would just like to remind you that if you had your fasting blood test done and the results were reassuring this is far from being a guarantee that you do not suffer from prediabetes or insulin resistance. You can read more about more accurate blood test in my guide on ‘How to help your doctor’