Experts say diabetes is growing fastest in Asia

Tue Apr 30, 2002

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Diabetes is spreading faster in Asia than anywhere else in the world and is affecting children as young as nine, medical experts said on Wednesday.

An estimated 60 million people in the Asia Pacific, including India, now suffer from the disease and that figure is expected to balloon to 115 million by the year 2025, they said.

They blamed the disease, which can result in heart disease and stroke, on a chronic lack of exercise due to a sedentary lifestyle and a move away from traditional diets in favour of western fast foods that are high in carbohydrates and fat.

Clive Cockram, co-chairman of the Asia Pacific Type 2 Diabetes Policy Group -- which is supported by the World Health Organization (news - web sites ) and the International Diabetes Federation -- told Reuters diabetes was Asia's biggest epidemic and would have major social and economic consequences for the region.

Cockram's policy group will launch guidelines in Hong Kong on Wednesday aimed at tackling diabetes.

"Ten to 20 years ago, it was regarded largely as being a disease of middle and old age. We're now recognising that it's cropping up regularly in people in their 20s and 30s, teenagers and children at the age of nine," Cockram said.

"There's been a big shift downwards in the age of onset and we believe that that's related to changes in lifestyle."

He highlighted India and China as being at the forefront of the epidemic and said their populations of diabetics (news - web sites) were expected to double to 60 million and 40 million, respectively, by 2025.

The policy group also expects the world diabetic population to double by 2025 -- to 300 million.

The United States, Russia, Indonesia, Japan and Pakistan are among nations with most diabetes patients, Cockram said.

UNHEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Increasing numbers of people in Asia have adopted a more sedentary lifestyle. Growing affluence, popularity of western foods and taking less exercise has given rise to growing obesity, even among children, medical experts say.

In places like China and Hong Kong, many worried parents send their children to "fat farms" where they are subjected to strict diets and lots of exercise. More often than not, these children revert to their old ways once they leave the camps, they say.

Cockram said the diabetic trend could prove devastating if it was not stopped.

In the United States, Australia and Europe, as much as 10 percent of healthcare budgets are spent on treating diabetes and related complications, he said.

The guidelines, meant for health workers, will elaborate on the scale of the problem, its diagnosis, complications and ways to prevent and control it.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...m/asia_102810_1