Diabetes Rising Exponentially Worldwide With 463 Million Diabetics Currently

The latest edition of the IDF (International Diabetes Federation) Diabetes Atlas (the 9^th edition) shows that more than 463 million people worldwide are currently living with diabetes.


 
China leads the lists with more than 116 million diabetics, followed by India with 77 million diabetics and America in third place with 31 million diabetics.
 
Though Thailand did not secure a place among the top ten, it was still in the top twenty with more than 4.7 million diabetics. But its also interesting to note that Thailand had only about 4.2 million diabetics in 2017 but that figure is now more than 4.7 million diabetics or an increase of about 12 per cent over a 15 month period which clearly shows that there is either no or a failed community health programme in place to educate people about the disease and also prevention strategies.
 
Diabetes is one of the fastest growing health challenges of the 21^st century, with the number of adults living with diabetes having more than tripled over the past 20 years.

In 2000, the global estimate of adults living with diabetes was 151 million. By 2009 it had grown by 88% to 285 million. Today, we calculate that 9.3% of adults aged 20–79 years  a staggering 463 million people are living with diabetes. A further 1.2 million children and adolescents under the age of 20, live with type 1 diabetes.
 
A decade ago, in 2010, the global projection for diabetes in 2025 was 438 million. With over five years still to go, that prediction has already been surpassed by 25 million.

IDF estimates that there will be 578 million adults with diabetes by 2030, and 700 million by 2045.
 
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas is no longer able to make insulin, or when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces. There are three main types of diabetes:
 
-Type 1 diabetes is caused by an autoimmune reaction in which the body's immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. As a result, the body produces very little or no insulin.
 
-Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. Initially, hyperglycaemia (high blood glucose levels) is the result of the inability of the body's cells to respond fully to insulin, a situation termed 'insulin resistance'.
 
-Gestational diabetes (GDM) is characterised by high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. It may occur at any time during pregnancy (although most likely after week 24) and usually disappears after the pregnancy.
 
The increasing prevalence of diabetes worldwide is driven by a complex interplay of socioeconomic, demographic, environmental and genetic factors. The continued rise is largely due to an upsurge in type 2 diabetes and related risk factors, which include rising levels of obesity, unhealthy diets and widespread physical inactivity. However, levels of childhood-onset type 1 diabetes are also on the rise.
 
Growing urbanisation and changing lifestyle habits (e.g. higher calorie intake, increasing consumption of processed foods, sedentary lifestyles) are contributory factors for the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes at a societal level. While global prevalence of diabetes in urban areas is 10.8%, in rural areas it is lower, at 7.2%. However, this gap is closing, with rural prevalence on the rise.
 
In 2019, the countries with the largest numbers of adults with diabetes are China, India and the United States of America, and are anticipated to remain so until 2030.



 
It is projected that the number of people with diabetes in Pakistan will exceed that in the United States of America by 2045, moving the country to third place.
 
Diabetic Related Deaths Also Increasing
 
Total number of diabetic related deaths in 2018 was about 3.4 million deaths. The Region with the highest estimated number of diabetes-related adult deaths is the IDF Western Pacific (WP) Region, where 1.3 million deaths are due to diabetes each year. This is followed by the IDF South-East Asia (SEA) Region, with 1.2 million deaths. The Region with the lowest number of diabetes-related deaths is the IDF South and Central America (SACA) Region (0.2 million).
 
More Younger Adults Getting Diabetes.
Three in four people living with diabetes (352 million people) are of working age (i.e. between 20 and 64 years old). This number is expected to increase to 417 million by 2030 and to 486 million by 2045.
 
This generates a growing human impact and will also drive a serious and expanding strain on productivity and economic growth in the coming decades.
 
Elderly Also Developing Diabetes More Than Previous Decades.
In 2019, the estimated number of people over 65 years of age with diabetes is 111 million. One in five adults in this age group is estimated to have diabetes.
 
It is projected that by 2030 the number of people over 65 with diabetes will further increase to 195 million. By 2045, it will reach 276 million. These data point to substantial increases in the diabetes population of ageing societies in the next 25 years, as well as the inevitable public health and economic challenges this will bring.
 
Growing Number Of Diabetic Children
An estimated 1.2 million children and adolescents (aged under 20) have type 1 diabetes. There is some evidence that type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents is increasing in some counties, but it is not currently possible to estimate the numbers due to a lack of data.
 
Diabetic Related Complications On A Rise
Other health and medical issues such as cardiovascular diseases, eye diseases, kidney diseases, dementia and more, all related to diabetes are significantly rising.
 
Thailand Medical News concludes that as more larger format coffee outlet open (like recently in Chicago!), and as more fast food branches spring up, while more online food deliveries set up operations in Thailand or elsewhere (people are simply getting more lazy with less physical activity), with the emergence of more tech applications that make people less physically active, with  more processed foods appearing in the supermarket shelves, with people generally getting more stupid as a result of the smartphones and facebook etc, we will definitely see more people develop diabetes and lead miserable lives with it. But its basically a matter of choice that they have undertaken.Despite there being lots of information online about health and medical prevention or manegment of diabetes, most people are more engrossed with stupid contents.
 
The private healthcare industry, the health insurance industry and also the pharmaceutical and medical device industries must all be extremely happy with these latest diabetes report as it’s a trillion dollar market segment by itself that is growing year by year.