The Global Diabetes Epidemic, Brought To You By Global Development

The Global Diabetes Epidemic, Brought to You by Global Development

The link between economic growth and the worldwide diabetes epidemic, explained
Diners in Shanghai eat at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. (Aly Song/Reuters)
As globalization exports our culture across the world, it also spreads our health problems. For much of the 20th century, a person's likelihood to develop type-2 diabetes depended as much on the wealth of their nation as their biology. Those living in the developed world survived to old age and eventually succumbed to "diseases of affluence": cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. In contrast, undernourishment, violence, and communicable diseases ravaged the health of residents of developing countries.
And this is the way things remain in the developed world: even in poor parts of the United States, almost no one dies of tuberculosis. But in low- and middle-income countries, the distinction fades. The "diseases of affluence" have embedded themselves in communities anything but affluent. Now, cholera strikes next door to cancer; the malnourished and diabetic share a roof.
In this new landscape of health in the developing world, the impact of diabetes is momentous. Since 1980, the number of diabetics worldwide has ballooned from 152 million to between 285 and 347 million today. Of these, three-quarters live in the developing world, where diabetes afflicts more than six times as many people as HIV. Why, if infectious diseases persist and life expectancies remain low, has diabetes taken such a toll on the health of the impoverished?
One explanation relies on a trio of social forces: aging population, urbanization, a Continue reading

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Reversing Type 2 Diabetes with Nutritional Ketosis

Virta is a science-based online specialty medical clinic using continuous remote monitoring and intensive coaching to help our patients reverse type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. A unique contributor to our success in this is harnessing and sustaining the metabolic benefits of nutritional ketosis. Admittedly, reversing diabetes is a rather bold goal. By way of contrast, the American Diabetes Association defines type 2 diabetes as a progressive disease whose course at best can be slowed by lifestyle change and medication. Based upon solid science—some old and some new—we beg to differ. Perhaps it’s time for a paradigm change.
There are few times in the lives of medical scientists where we have the opportunity to change the course of a major medical disease; and even fewer cases where we actually succeed in doing so.
In 1920, Banting’s discovery that injected insulin could control type 1 diabetes (T1D) was such an event. As a result, over the last century, millions of people with T1D have achieved long and productive lives; whereas before 1920 most of them would have succumbed to this insulin-deficiency disease within less than a year.
Type 2 diabetes (T2D), on the other hand, is a very different disease that affects hundreds of millions of people. It responds very poorly to injected insulin. Whereas T1D patients cannot make insulin, people with T2D typically make lots of insulin but are resistant to insulin’s effects across a variety of cellular functions. Despite these facts having been known for 5 decades, we are taught that the core components of T2D management ar Continue reading

Diabetes Type 3c?

Little-known diabetes type—caused by pancreas-related problems—is often misdiagnosed and mistreated a new UK study finds
It’s not Type 1…and it’s not Type 2. When researchers from the UK’s University of Surrey checked the health records of 2.3 million adults for a new study published in the November issue of Diabetes Care, they uncovered more cases than expected of a little-known blood sugar problem: Diabetes type 3c. And most were misdiagnosed, meaning people with “3c” may not have gotten the best treatment.
Type 3c is “diabetes that acts differently,” according to study co-author Andrew McGovern, a research fellow at the University of Exeter and honorary clinical researcher at the University of Surrey. It’s caused by damage to the pancreas—the gland that contains insulin-producing islet cells—from inflammation (pancreatitis), surgery or cancer. The damage knocks out some, but not all, islet cells, reducing insulin levels in the body. In contrast, type 1 diabetes is triggered by an immune-system attack that knocks out virtually all of a person’s islet cells and type 2 happens when the pancreas can’t make enough insulin to overcome insulin resistance.
The study looked at new cases of diabetes. It found 559 people with probable type 3c. It was more common than new type 1 diabetes in adults (354 had that type), which surprised the researchers. More concerning: 88% with type 3c were misdiagnosed as type 2s. That’s a problem, because conventional type 2 drugs that boost insulin sensitivity and insulin production may not work well for 3cs. They we Continue reading

Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes in 15 states of India: results from the ICMR–INDIAB population-based cross-sectional study

Summary
Previous studies have not adequately captured the heterogeneous nature of the diabetes epidemic in India. The aim of the ongoing national Indian Council of Medical Research–INdia DIABetes study is to estimate the national prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes in India by estimating the prevalence by state.
We used a stratified multistage design to obtain a community-based sample of 57 117 individuals aged 20 years or older. The sample population represented 14 of India's 28 states (eight from the mainland and six from the northeast of the country) and one union territory. States were sampled in a phased manner: phase I included Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra, sampled between Nov 17, 2008, and April 16, 2010; phase II included Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Punjab, sampled between Sept 24, 2012, and July 26, 2013; and the northeastern phase included Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, and Meghalaya, with sampling done between Jan 5, 2012, and July 3, 2015. Capillary oral glucose tolerance tests were used to diagnose diabetes and prediabetes in accordance with WHO criteria. Our methods did not allow us to differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes in different states was assessed in relation to socioeconomic status (SES) of individuals and the per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) of each state. We used multiple logistic regression analysis to examine the association of various factors with the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes.
The overall prevalence of diabetes in all 15 Continue reading

2017 Diabetes Facts & Statistics

Diabetes costs the U.S. economy over $245 billion per year, making it the country’s most expensive disease. But the damage obviously extends well beyond dollars and cents. It’s the 3rd most deadly disease in the U.S., claiming over 80,000 lives per year and becoming a daily concern for millions more.
Yet the roughly 9 in 10 Americans who don’t have diabetes probably don’t understand the full extent of the struggle, either. The same can also be said of the nearly 1 in 4 people with diabetes who don’t know they have it.
So to help spread awareness, WalletHub assembled an interesting infographic exploring the impact of the disease as well as what folks are doing to fight back. We also surveyed a panel of diabetes experts about issues ranging from personal finance to policy. You can find everything below.
Ask The Experts: Dealing With & Defeating Diabetes
For insights into how we can reduce the many costs of diabetes, WalletHub posed the following questions to a panel of experts. You can check out their bios and responses below.
What are the warning signs that someone may have Type 1 Diabetes? What about Type 2?
What steps can someone take today to help reduce diabetes risk?
What should public officials do to raise awareness about diabetes and the need for screening?
What are some common myths or misunderstandings people have about diabetes?
How have individuals with diabetes fared under the Affordable Care Act?
What tips do you have for a person with Type 2 diabetes looking to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle while on a budget? Continue reading