Killing Me Softly...Diabetes

picture from WHO

I was watching TV yesterday when I stumbled upon a local television channel where it features issues about people afflicted by diabetes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more or less 200 million people afflicted by this chronic disease.

Prevalence of diabetes worldwide (WHO)

	2000	2030
World	171,000,000	366,000,000

Diabetes accounts to millions of people who are suffering from organ dysfunction and various never and blood vessel diseases. A person is diabetic when he is either unable to produce insulin or efficiently make use of the insulin produced by the body.

Here are some factual statistics about diabetes, taken from WHO:

QUICK DIABETES FACTS

• Diabetes causes about 5% of all deaths globally each year.
• 80% of people with diabetes live in low and middle income countries.
• Most people with diabetes in low and middle income countries are middle-aged (45-64), not elderly (65+).
• Diabetes deaths are likely to increase by more than 50% in the next 10 years without urgent action.

Out of fear and curiosity, I asked my dad yesterday while watching if any of his parents or siblings have ever had diabetes or any other related diseases. He said "no". Well, good, I said. :) My dad is 80 but still is alive and kicking. That resistance probably runs in the genes LOL.

Although genetics play a big role to becoming predisposed to such diseases, lifestyle choice, level of physical activity and weight maintenance and vices like smoking also add up to the possibility of developing such disease. So the onset of a certain diseases such as diabetes still depends on how we take care of our body and the kind of lifestyles we choose, ayt? :)