The number of people living with diabetes has nearly quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults with majority of them living in developing countries, says a survey report. The World Health Organisation has its focus on the spreading tentacles of diabetes on the occasion of World Health Day on 7 March. There is need to step up prevention and treatment of disease, extols the WHO report.
What is shocking is that Type II diabetes accounts for around 90 per cent of all diabetes worldwide. Reports of type II diabetes in children have increased worldwide.
Speaking to The Pioneer, former IMA president Dr Sanjay Shah said, “Type II diabetes normally occurs after a person reaches 35 to 40 years and it is very much reversible. It is myth which needs to be broken that once a diabetic is always a diabetic"
Sanjay Shah who has been working for the past eight years in preventive health said," Type 1 diabetes is comprehensible in children as some genes are responsible for the same. But type II spreading fast in our society is worth serious thought, he said. Things have come to such a pass in the past 30 years, he said, adding that it was rare before.
Accounting for the reasons, the doctors say, stressful life is the major factor. Environmental stress that arises from sedentary life style, adulterated food and pollution is adding to the mental stress, making life vulnerable, they say.
A yoga practitioner at Dev Sanskrit VIshwavidyala, Prof Kamakhya says, “Diabetes is stress- borne disorder and 80 percent of the disease has its origin in the mind. Yoga and living with nature are the best therapies as far as fighting off diabetes is concerned.”