Is Type 2 Diabetes Really a World-Wide Epidemic?
Type 2 diabetes...
one of the biggest epidemics of our time! Every 5 minutes someone in the world is diagnosed as a diabetic, and every 10 minutes someone in the world dies of it.
Far more people die from diabetes every year than to the number of people who succumb to H1N1 swine flu, and fully 10% of all the world's healthcare expenditures are devoted to treating this one disease.
But is the epidemic really worldwide? About 90% of all new cases of diabetes are Type 2 diabetes.
In some countries, notably Mexico, Nauru, Oman, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, nearly 1/3 of all adults have the disease.
In some Native American tribes, 2/3 of adults eventually become Type 2 diabetics.
Type 2 diabetes is often described as a 'lifestyle' disease, but the simple fact is the greatest rates of this disease are found in countries where adults, until recently, succumbed to other conditions.
In much of the world it may be that people are just now living long enough to get Type 2 diabetes after centuries of starvation, disease, and economic deprivation.
Type 2 diabetes is far more common among poor people than among wealthy people.
In the twenty-first century, about 80 per cent of all newly diagnosed Type 2's live in developing countries.
The reason that rates of this disease are exploding in the developing world is that until recently, the same genes that cause Type 2 diabetes once ensured survival.
People who have diabetes have high blood sugar levels.
Blood sugar is essential to the operation of your brain, your ovaries or your testes.
People who did not have low blood sugar levels when they could not find food were more able to think their way out of difficulty, and more likely to be able to reproduce.
When food became something you buy in a store rather than something you raise in rice paddy or hunt in the woods, then Type 2 became a debility.
It's only natural that the poorest nations would have the highest rates of this form of diabetes as they develop reliable food distribution systems.
Similarly, in the United States, UK, Canada, and Australia, Type 2 diabetes is more common among people who have less money to spend for food.
Sugar calories are cheap.
Fresh vegetables can be expensive.
For most of human history, it was the other way around.
The need to stay on a tight food budget leads to the metabolic changes that result in adult-onset diabetes.
People with this form of diabetes, did not get that way because they ate too much or they exercised too little.
They developed Type 2 diabetes because their bodies could not produce insulin timed to match the digestion of the kinds of foods their budgets afford.
Making healthy food as available as junk food is now the single most important step in reversing the epidemic of Type 2 diabetes.
one of the biggest epidemics of our time! Every 5 minutes someone in the world is diagnosed as a diabetic, and every 10 minutes someone in the world dies of it.
Far more people die from diabetes every year than to the number of people who succumb to H1N1 swine flu, and fully 10% of all the world's healthcare expenditures are devoted to treating this one disease.
But is the epidemic really worldwide? About 90% of all new cases of diabetes are Type 2 diabetes.
In some countries, notably Mexico, Nauru, Oman, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, nearly 1/3 of all adults have the disease.
In some Native American tribes, 2/3 of adults eventually become Type 2 diabetics.
Type 2 diabetes is often described as a 'lifestyle' disease, but the simple fact is the greatest rates of this disease are found in countries where adults, until recently, succumbed to other conditions.
In much of the world it may be that people are just now living long enough to get Type 2 diabetes after centuries of starvation, disease, and economic deprivation.
Type 2 diabetes is far more common among poor people than among wealthy people.
In the twenty-first century, about 80 per cent of all newly diagnosed Type 2's live in developing countries.
The reason that rates of this disease are exploding in the developing world is that until recently, the same genes that cause Type 2 diabetes once ensured survival.
People who have diabetes have high blood sugar levels.
Blood sugar is essential to the operation of your brain, your ovaries or your testes.
People who did not have low blood sugar levels when they could not find food were more able to think their way out of difficulty, and more likely to be able to reproduce.
When food became something you buy in a store rather than something you raise in rice paddy or hunt in the woods, then Type 2 became a debility.
It's only natural that the poorest nations would have the highest rates of this form of diabetes as they develop reliable food distribution systems.
Similarly, in the United States, UK, Canada, and Australia, Type 2 diabetes is more common among people who have less money to spend for food.
Sugar calories are cheap.
Fresh vegetables can be expensive.
For most of human history, it was the other way around.
The need to stay on a tight food budget leads to the metabolic changes that result in adult-onset diabetes.
People with this form of diabetes, did not get that way because they ate too much or they exercised too little.
They developed Type 2 diabetes because their bodies could not produce insulin timed to match the digestion of the kinds of foods their budgets afford.
Making healthy food as available as junk food is now the single most important step in reversing the epidemic of Type 2 diabetes.
