[Kabar-indonesia] Asia on brink of diabetes disaster, experts warn

[Joyo at aol.com]

Asia on brink of diabetes disaster, experts warn

PARIS, November 10 (AFP) -- Health services across Asia
could crash in the face of a worsening epidemic of obesity-
led diabetes, experts warn.

In 2003, 194 million people in Asia had diabetes and by
2025, the tally could be 333 million, according to a paper
published by the British journal The Lancet ahead of World
Diabetes Day next Tuesday.

"Childhood obesity has increased substantially and the
prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has now reached epidemic
levels in Asia. The health consequences of this epidemic
threaten to overwhelm health-care systems in the region,"
the study says sternly.

"Urgent action is needed, and advocacy for lifestyle changes
is the first step."

The review, lead-written by South Korean diabetes specialist
Yoon Kun-Ho, a professor at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital in
Seoul, says Asia is riding the express lane to a crisis with
far-reaching social and economic repercussions.

Many of its causes are familiar to western economies, where
insulin resistance, which leads to diabetes, has surged
along with waistlines, it says.

The paper points the finger of blame at energy-dense diets
saturated in fat and sugar that have come along with
urbanisation and prosperity, and at a sedentary lifestyle
based around the TV and computer screen.

In South Korea, the proportion of plant-derived food in the
local diet plunged from 97 percent in 1969 to 79 percent in
1995, while the animal-food intake rose sevenfold. In Japan,
five-year-old boys in metropolitan Tokyo had 12.6 percent of
fat in their daily diet in 1952; in 1994, it was 33.2
percent.

In the United States, prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has
doubled from four to eight percent of the population in 40
years.

In newly-developed economies in Asia, the rate today is
similar or even higher -- only it has taken just a couple of
decades for this to occur.

In Chinese adults, the rate of diabetes tripled from one
percent to 3.2 percent between 1980 and 1996, while in
Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand, prevalence has risen
threefold to fivefold over the past 30 years.

Diabetes in Asia particularly strikes people aged between 45
and 64, whereas in Europe and North America, populated
mainly by people of European descent, diabetes mainly
affects people older than 65.

This raises the worrying question whether Asians are
genetically more susceptible to obesity and diabetes, says
the study, which appears in Saturday's issue of The Lancet.
When compared like for like, in terms of age, sex and body
mass, Asians, especially Asian women, have a higher
proportion of body fat than their counterparts of European
origin, and this fat is likelier to be stored around the
abdomen.

According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, a
substantial proportion of Asian people with a body-mass
index of less than 25 -- which is the "overweight" threshold
according to the conventional yardstick -- are at high risk
of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

In addition, several studies suggest Asians may lack
suffient beta cells in the pancreas, or have flaws in these
cells. These problems make them resistant to insulin, the
precursor condition to Type 2 diabetes.

The authors say governments across the region should launch
emergency plans to tackle the problem, focussing first and
foremost on weight control and exercise.

"Improvement of public health remains an urgent need, since
the looming epidemic of diabetes and its complications
threatens to drain health care resources," they say.

Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body does not
produce enough of the hormone insulin, or cannot make proper
use of the insulin it does produce, a condition called
insulin resistance.

As a result, there are wild fluctuations of glucose in the
blood. This can eventually lead to blindness, heart disease,
amputations and kidney failure.

Type 1 diabetes is linked to genetic predisposition. The
more common Type 2 diabetes results mainly from an unhealthy
diet and inactivity.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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