The studies about diabetes are carried out in South India, especially in Chennai, which has a good number of major diabetes centers. Over the past three decades, the prevalence of diabetes in adults increased steadily and marked as about 20% in urban mass and 10% in rural mass. It is to be noted that over these periods, diabetes has increased 3 times and pre-diabetes to 5 times.
The development of diabetes is found in South Indians at a younger age(45 years) and have a very high prevalence of risk factors like hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular etc. etc. The panic thing is, even those with pre-diabetes are at high prevalence of cardiovascular riskfactors. Upon international comparison, It is found that Asian Indians have the highest prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes. The intake of total dietary carbohydrate and glycemic food are the factors associated with an increased risk, despite the intake of dietary fibers which decreases the risk of being diabetic.
Lifestyle factors and family history are also factors affecting the risk of diabetes.
The high rate of diabetics is a burden to our country economically and many people are thrown into poverty since they ought to spend a huge amount of their income for diabetes care. The sad news is, only half of the diabetics are aware abou their medications and the remaining population is undiagnosed!
Massive diabetes education programs are inevitable at this juncture throughout India. Innovative treatment information like ‘Diabetic physico Treatment’ that is linked with physical activity could help cure diabetes and all linked diseases.