Diabetes is one of the biggest health catastrophes the world has ever seen, and the numbers show why they are so. Deaths caused by diabetes around the world is almost equal to diseases such as HIV/AIDS. In fact, the number of diabetics have increased from only 30 million a couple of decades to nearly 250 million as of now.Millions of lives are lost every year as a result of the disease and it is spreading rapidly in all countries over the world. This disease has especially affected the developing world with India and China being the two nations with the highest number of diabetics. However, the per capita ratio of the number of patients from the disease is higher in Western countries such as United States of America.
There are many factors driving the growth in diabetes worldwide. Most people agree that the modern sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet habits are the main culprits. With the industrialization and economic growth of developing countries, the people residing in those countries gradually involve in less physical activity and eat unhealthy high calorie foods such as fried foods, pizzas, fast food etc. This combination of food and lifestyle results in weight gain thereby resulting in greater risk of the disease in developing countries.
The main causes for rapid increase of diabetes are:
1.Obesity: Diabetes often comes with obesity. But obese people can only become diabetic with excessive protein and carbohydrate consumption regularly, without excessive fat consumption.
2.Physical inactivity: Most people are under the misconception that consuming sugar causes type 2 diabetes, which is absolutely wrong. These days, especially children, never go out of their houses, because, they have no time to do so. Most of the time, they are either busy with their video games or with their school or college assignments. The only time they do go out for is to watch a film or when they go to their favorite eating places. Even schools nowadays are opting out sports classes and going for more study hours. There are schools especially in developing countries where students are made to study for up to sixteen hours a day during their exams. This is bad and it becomes even worse because, these people consume too much food that contains excessive quantities of protein, fats.etc. without any sort of physical activity to burn up their calories, thus causing obesity,diabetes.etc.
3.Food: Nowadays, people have fallen in love with the tasty fast food available these days in restaurants. The food we get there is no doubt tasty, but it contain excessive protein, fats, sugars and may contain chemical toxins, thus causing diabetes.
4.Infections: Infections with certain kinds of virus or bacteria can cause diabetes. Though this is not completely in our control, we can do our bit by keeping our surroundings clean.
5.Drugs: Drug intake such as steroids, dilantin, etc. is certainly increasing all over the world. This may elevate the blood sugar through a variety of mechanisms.
6. Age: With increasing age, the chances of becoming diabetic also increases. From the age of 45, humans become easy targets for diabetes. Humans become much weaker after the age of 65, thus becoming more prone to diabetes. This is due to the decreasing resistance power of human beings with age.
7. Alcohol: Consumption of alcohol, which is certainly increasing all over the world, is also a major contributor for diabetes.
By looking at all the above factors, it can be observed that the major factor that is accounting for increasing diabetic patients all over the world is 'lack of awareness'. People should know what to do and what not to do in order to prevent diabetes.
Taking a balanced, light and healthy diet (fruits, vegetables, food without saturated fat etc.) and doing some sort of physical exercises helps in preventing the onset of diabetes.
The author likes to write on a variety of health topics including topics such as prevention of type 2 diabetes.