Diabetes UK reports
10 August 2009
Children of South Asian origin in the UK are 13 times more likely to have Type 2 diabetes than White children.
The statistic is from the charity’s new report, Diabetes in the UK 2009: Key statistics on diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is up to six times more common in people of South Asian descent and those who have diabetes are three times more likely to have heart disease – just one of the devastating complications of diabetes.
Douglas Smallwood, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said: “It is very worrying that any child is developing Type 2 diabetes as it is usually only found in adults, but it is particularly alarming that South Asian children are at such high risk. South Asian people are more likely to develop the condition and factors such as eating traditional foods high in salt and fat alongside western ‘fast foods’ compound their risk.
“Type 2 diabetes is serious. It can lead to complications including heart disease, kidney failure, stroke, blindness and amputation. It is a genetic condition but many cases are preventable through lifestyle changes, so Diabetes UK is working hard to raise awareness of the risk factors and symptoms to give people the best possible chance of reducing their risk of developing it.
“Awareness of diabetes must be increased among agencies that interact with people from South Asian communities at grass roots level. Information about the condition should be tailored where necessary and made available in formats that are accessible. We must prevent generations of children needlessly facing a lifetime of ill health.”
Risks and symptoms
Risk factors for Type 2 diabetes include having a large waist or being overweight; being of Black or South Asian origin; having a family history of the condition; and being over 40 years old, or over 25 if you’re Black or South Asian. Type 2 diabetes can be undetected for 10 years or more and around half of people already have complications by the time they are diagnosed. At risk waist measurements are 37 inches or more for men, except those of South Asian origin who are at risk at 35 inches or more, and 31.5 inches or more for all women.
Symptoms of Type 2 diabetes include increased thirst, going to the loo (for a wee) all the time – especially at night, extreme tiredness, blurred vision, genital itching or regular episodes of thrush, and slow healing of wounds.
www.mydiabetes.com is a community of patients,family members, friends and healthcare professionals providing support and wncouragenemt to each other along the diabetes journey. For more information please visit us at www.mydiabetes.com
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Monday, 27 July 2009
Insulin Appreciation Day
Insulin Appreciation Day
www.mydiabetes.com
Thursday the 30th of July is insulin appreciation day.
Some History
In the fall of 1920 Dr. Frederick Banting had an idea that would unlock the mystery of the dreaded diabetes disorder. Before this, for thousands of years, a diabetes diagnosis meant wasting away to a certain death.
Working at a University of Toronto laboratory in the very hot summer of 1921 Fred Banting and Charles Best were able to make a pancreatic extract which had anti diabetic characteristics. They were successful in testing their extract on diabetic dogs.
Within months Professor J. J. R. MacLeod, who provided the lab space and general scientific direction to Banting and Best, put his entire research team to work on the production and purification of insulin. J.B. Collip joined the team and with his technical expertise the four discoverers were able to purify insulin for use on diabetic patients.
The first tests were conducted on Leonard Thompson early in 1922. These were a spectacular success. Word of this spread quickly around the world giving immediate hope to many diabetic persons who were near death. A frenzied quest for insulin followed. Some patients in a diabetic coma made miraculous recoveries.
While insulin is not a cure, this medical discovery has and continues to save millions of lives world-wide. The production of insulin has changed a great deal since 1922. Modern science and technology has made high quality insulin and delivery systems available to diabetic persons.
What to do on the 30th?
Clarence Haynes who is a member of our community has suggested that on Thursday we contact five people who live with diabetes and simply ask this question “how are you today?”
Pick up the phone, send an email or send a message via the members tab on our web site.
Thanks to the work of Banting and his team great progress has been made in the management of diabetes.
For ordinairy people a little “how are you doing” can act as a great encouragement in the day to day management of their diabetes
Please do your best to make five calls on Thursday. Thank you
www.mydiabetes.com
Thursday the 30th of July is insulin appreciation day.
Some History
In the fall of 1920 Dr. Frederick Banting had an idea that would unlock the mystery of the dreaded diabetes disorder. Before this, for thousands of years, a diabetes diagnosis meant wasting away to a certain death.
Working at a University of Toronto laboratory in the very hot summer of 1921 Fred Banting and Charles Best were able to make a pancreatic extract which had anti diabetic characteristics. They were successful in testing their extract on diabetic dogs.
Within months Professor J. J. R. MacLeod, who provided the lab space and general scientific direction to Banting and Best, put his entire research team to work on the production and purification of insulin. J.B. Collip joined the team and with his technical expertise the four discoverers were able to purify insulin for use on diabetic patients.
The first tests were conducted on Leonard Thompson early in 1922. These were a spectacular success. Word of this spread quickly around the world giving immediate hope to many diabetic persons who were near death. A frenzied quest for insulin followed. Some patients in a diabetic coma made miraculous recoveries.
While insulin is not a cure, this medical discovery has and continues to save millions of lives world-wide. The production of insulin has changed a great deal since 1922. Modern science and technology has made high quality insulin and delivery systems available to diabetic persons.
What to do on the 30th?
Clarence Haynes who is a member of our community has suggested that on Thursday we contact five people who live with diabetes and simply ask this question “how are you today?”
Pick up the phone, send an email or send a message via the members tab on our web site.
Thanks to the work of Banting and his team great progress has been made in the management of diabetes.
For ordinairy people a little “how are you doing” can act as a great encouragement in the day to day management of their diabetes
Please do your best to make five calls on Thursday. Thank you
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Young people and diabetes
Young and diabetic a report from www.asiaone.com.sg
A sedentary lifestyle, obesity and poor eating habits are why more youngsters are becoming diabetic. -ST
IT USED to hit those above 45, but there are now more young children and adolescents diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, at a rate doctors describe as alarming and worrying.
Dr Daphne Gardner, a registrar at the endocrinology department at Singapore General Hospital (SGH), says: "Type 2 diabetes in childhood or adolescence was uncommon in the past but now accounts for at least a third of childhood diabetes. Today, a child above the age of 12 who gets diagnosed with diabetes, has almost as much chance of having Type 2 diabetes as Type 1 diabetes."
While both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have a genetic component, studies have found that a sedentary lifestyle with poor eating habits and excessive weight gain are very strong contributing factors in the latter.
In Type 1 diabetes, patients' bodies produce little or no insulin, a hormone that is important for glucose metabolism. They have to be put on daily insulin injections to control their blood glucose level.
In Type 2 diabetes, patients are unable to utilise insulin. While these patients do not need insulin injections, they have to watch their diet, exercise and keep their weight down. Excess weight, particularly in the abdomen, affects one's ability to utilise insulin.
What is worrying, says Dr Goh Su-Yen, director of the diabetes clinical services at SGH, is that the younger the onset of diabetes, the longer the period of time the patient is being exposed to its complications in young adulthood.
"This ultimately increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, renal failure, blindness and limb amputations, all occurring in a younger age group. The rising trend in obesity, and consequently Type 2 diabetes, does not appear to be reaching a plateau, another observation that is worrying," adds Dr Goh.
What's also of concern is that it's easy to miss Type 2 diabetes in patients because it can be asymptomatic or the patient may present with general symptoms such as fatigue or repeated episodes of infections.
Hence the importance of medical screening, particularly for those at risk. Associate Professor Lee Yung Seng, a senior consult-ant with the University Children's Medical Institute at the National University Hospital, advises: "Type 2 diabetes usually affect older children, especially those in puberty. Children who are overweight and have a family history also have a higher risk of being hit by this type of diabetes. The American Diabetes Association has recommended considering screening children with risk factors, even if they do not appear to have any symptoms." When left undetected, patients are at risk of cardiovascular disease, renal failure, blindness and limb amputations.
While Type 2 diabetes can be controlled by oral medications and insulin injections, doctors say the mainstay of treatment is to lose weight by watching one's diet and exercising.
However, compliance is often an issue in the young sufferers.
Prof Lee says: "Young sufferers may have more risk-taking behaviour and may omit insulin injections, medications or forgo their dietary control.
"Physically, there are surges of sex and growth hormones during puberty which can affect their diabetes control too."
As diabetes is a chronic disease, prevention is definitely better than cure. Dr Gardner says: "There are many things we can do to prevent Type 2 diabetes in the young: we should encourage more physical activity and healthy meals. For kids who are overweight, some suggestions include limiting time spent on sedentary activities like watching television to less than four hours a day, avoiding carbonated drinks or sweet juices and limiting fast foods."
A sedentary lifestyle, obesity and poor eating habits are why more youngsters are becoming diabetic. -ST
IT USED to hit those above 45, but there are now more young children and adolescents diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, at a rate doctors describe as alarming and worrying.
Dr Daphne Gardner, a registrar at the endocrinology department at Singapore General Hospital (SGH), says: "Type 2 diabetes in childhood or adolescence was uncommon in the past but now accounts for at least a third of childhood diabetes. Today, a child above the age of 12 who gets diagnosed with diabetes, has almost as much chance of having Type 2 diabetes as Type 1 diabetes."
While both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have a genetic component, studies have found that a sedentary lifestyle with poor eating habits and excessive weight gain are very strong contributing factors in the latter.
In Type 1 diabetes, patients' bodies produce little or no insulin, a hormone that is important for glucose metabolism. They have to be put on daily insulin injections to control their blood glucose level.
In Type 2 diabetes, patients are unable to utilise insulin. While these patients do not need insulin injections, they have to watch their diet, exercise and keep their weight down. Excess weight, particularly in the abdomen, affects one's ability to utilise insulin.
What is worrying, says Dr Goh Su-Yen, director of the diabetes clinical services at SGH, is that the younger the onset of diabetes, the longer the period of time the patient is being exposed to its complications in young adulthood.
"This ultimately increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, renal failure, blindness and limb amputations, all occurring in a younger age group. The rising trend in obesity, and consequently Type 2 diabetes, does not appear to be reaching a plateau, another observation that is worrying," adds Dr Goh.
What's also of concern is that it's easy to miss Type 2 diabetes in patients because it can be asymptomatic or the patient may present with general symptoms such as fatigue or repeated episodes of infections.
Hence the importance of medical screening, particularly for those at risk. Associate Professor Lee Yung Seng, a senior consult-ant with the University Children's Medical Institute at the National University Hospital, advises: "Type 2 diabetes usually affect older children, especially those in puberty. Children who are overweight and have a family history also have a higher risk of being hit by this type of diabetes. The American Diabetes Association has recommended considering screening children with risk factors, even if they do not appear to have any symptoms." When left undetected, patients are at risk of cardiovascular disease, renal failure, blindness and limb amputations.
While Type 2 diabetes can be controlled by oral medications and insulin injections, doctors say the mainstay of treatment is to lose weight by watching one's diet and exercising.
However, compliance is often an issue in the young sufferers.
Prof Lee says: "Young sufferers may have more risk-taking behaviour and may omit insulin injections, medications or forgo their dietary control.
"Physically, there are surges of sex and growth hormones during puberty which can affect their diabetes control too."
As diabetes is a chronic disease, prevention is definitely better than cure. Dr Gardner says: "There are many things we can do to prevent Type 2 diabetes in the young: we should encourage more physical activity and healthy meals. For kids who are overweight, some suggestions include limiting time spent on sedentary activities like watching television to less than four hours a day, avoiding carbonated drinks or sweet juices and limiting fast foods."
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
The Influence of Hormones on Weight Gain
Influence of Hormones on Weight Gain
According to Dr Pamela Peeke, assistant clinical professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and author of Fight Fat After Forty, comfort eating during stressful moments - which tend to be many - is one of the main reasons our waistlines expand.
According to Professor Peeke, Whenever we're angry, scared, anxious, or tense, the brain produces cortisol and adrenaline: hormones specifically designed to incite the fight-or-flight response that was once crucial to our survival. 'Adrenaline's main role is to make you alert and focused, with exceptional concentration and memory,' says Peeke. She adds that cortisol also helps increase heart and respiratory rates and getting your muscles tensed and ready.
While those physiological processes worked well for our prehistoric ancestors, they're not as useful in a world where physical dangers are few. The trouble is, whenever we're stressed these hormones are released into your system. Though adrenaline levels plummet as the stress subsides, cortisol remains in the body much longer. Since, physiologically speaking, your body thinks you've run a mile or two or done something active in response to the 'threat', the hormone sends signals to refuel the body as soon as possible. It's a biological green light to indulge in foods loaded with carbs and fat that leads to weight gain in the chronically stressed. It's a vicious cycle of stress, followed by elevated cortisol, followed by that scone you don't need.
Weight Gain
What's even more worrisome is the type of weight gain this cycle encourages. Cortisol, along with adrenaline, travels to the body's fat cells, allowing them to open and release fat - what the body knows as fuel - into the bloodstream, to the liver and then to the muscles to use as energy.
Toxic Abdominal Weight
In an interesting twist, Peeke's research has found that fat cells deep inside the belly are especially good at attracting cortisol. Simply put, the cascade of responses caused by stress encourages the accumulation of excess 'stress fat', the layer of fat below the abdominal muscle. 'This creates "toxic weight" - or extra fat inside the abdomen - which is the only type of fat on the body associated with death,' she says. She adds that this type of fat has been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer and diabetes.
Midlife Weight Gain
So how to break the vicious cycle of midlife weight gain and stress? Peeke suggests, among other things, a combination of healthy eating, regular exercise and stress management techniques.
Diet -
Reduce Processed Foods
One of the best ways to combat stress and anxiety is to eat foods that give you long-lasting energy, such as whole grains. Peeke advises avoiding foods that release sugar into the bloodstream too quickly, such as highly processed foods made with white, refined sugars and white starches - pasta, white rice, potatoes, and white bread. These increase the amount of insulin, another hormone that plays an important role in weight gain and appetite. In fact, Peeke calls elevated cortisol and elevated insulin levels a 'lethal duo' that creates an insatiable appetite for carbohydrates and fat.
According to Dr Pamela Peeke, assistant clinical professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and author of Fight Fat After Forty, comfort eating during stressful moments - which tend to be many - is one of the main reasons our waistlines expand.
According to Professor Peeke, Whenever we're angry, scared, anxious, or tense, the brain produces cortisol and adrenaline: hormones specifically designed to incite the fight-or-flight response that was once crucial to our survival. 'Adrenaline's main role is to make you alert and focused, with exceptional concentration and memory,' says Peeke. She adds that cortisol also helps increase heart and respiratory rates and getting your muscles tensed and ready.
While those physiological processes worked well for our prehistoric ancestors, they're not as useful in a world where physical dangers are few. The trouble is, whenever we're stressed these hormones are released into your system. Though adrenaline levels plummet as the stress subsides, cortisol remains in the body much longer. Since, physiologically speaking, your body thinks you've run a mile or two or done something active in response to the 'threat', the hormone sends signals to refuel the body as soon as possible. It's a biological green light to indulge in foods loaded with carbs and fat that leads to weight gain in the chronically stressed. It's a vicious cycle of stress, followed by elevated cortisol, followed by that scone you don't need.
Weight Gain
What's even more worrisome is the type of weight gain this cycle encourages. Cortisol, along with adrenaline, travels to the body's fat cells, allowing them to open and release fat - what the body knows as fuel - into the bloodstream, to the liver and then to the muscles to use as energy.
Toxic Abdominal Weight
In an interesting twist, Peeke's research has found that fat cells deep inside the belly are especially good at attracting cortisol. Simply put, the cascade of responses caused by stress encourages the accumulation of excess 'stress fat', the layer of fat below the abdominal muscle. 'This creates "toxic weight" - or extra fat inside the abdomen - which is the only type of fat on the body associated with death,' she says. She adds that this type of fat has been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer and diabetes.
Midlife Weight Gain
So how to break the vicious cycle of midlife weight gain and stress? Peeke suggests, among other things, a combination of healthy eating, regular exercise and stress management techniques.
Diet -
Reduce Processed Foods
One of the best ways to combat stress and anxiety is to eat foods that give you long-lasting energy, such as whole grains. Peeke advises avoiding foods that release sugar into the bloodstream too quickly, such as highly processed foods made with white, refined sugars and white starches - pasta, white rice, potatoes, and white bread. These increase the amount of insulin, another hormone that plays an important role in weight gain and appetite. In fact, Peeke calls elevated cortisol and elevated insulin levels a 'lethal duo' that creates an insatiable appetite for carbohydrates and fat.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Diabetes is about friends and family too
We all come into contact with diabetes through different routes. Some as patients during childhood, some as patients in older life. Some of us are parents of children with diabetes and for others it is our parents who develop the disease. For friends and workmates we are often faced with learning that someone we know and care for has been diagnosed with diabetes.
As patients and healthcare professionals we are all aware off the myths associated with diabetes.
What sould we do when someone we know is diagnosed? If we are a patient what should we tell our friends?
The sad and unexpected death as a result of diabetes related complications has inspired one of our members to take on the challenge of learning about the disease and set about training to enter a marathon ironman competition to raise funds for diabetes research.
The folowing item gives some pointers that may help explaining diabetes to friends and family members and sits alongside the recent video that discusses the bullying of children who have been diagnosed.
Tips for helping a person who has diabetes.
As patients and healthcare professionals we are all aware off the myths associated with diabetes.
What sould we do when someone we know is diagnosed? If we are a patient what should we tell our friends?
The sad and unexpected death as a result of diabetes related complications has inspired one of our members to take on the challenge of learning about the disease and set about training to enter a marathon ironman competition to raise funds for diabetes research.
The folowing item gives some pointers that may help explaining diabetes to friends and family members and sits alongside the recent video that discusses the bullying of children who have been diagnosed.
Tips for helping a person who has diabetes.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
The importance of working towards control.
The importance of working towards control.
Keeping with the advice of the health care professionals who look after us is not always easy. Following diets and exercise programmes, checking of blood sugar levels, attending appointments can be tough.
I often wonder how difficult it must be for parents whose children have diabetes. It’s tough enough bringing up children but to add the necessity to keep track of your child’s blood sugar levels and to administer insulin injections must at times become very challenging.
For the rest of us we are faced with many choices and temptations. Nicely packaged and advertised processed foods, candy, chocolates, sugar laden fizzy drinks, reasons not to do that exercise, I’ll leave it to tomorrow syndrome to name a few.
- heart disease
- strokes
- kidney disease (nephropathy)
- impotence
- peripheral vascular disease (PVD)
- nerve damage (neuropathy)
- damage to the back of the eye (retinopathy)
Uncontrolled diabetes is the commonest cause of blindness in people of working age, although treatment can prevent blindness in 90 per cent of those at risk.
Diabetes is the second most common cause of lower limb amputation, trauma being responsible for most leg amputations.
However, it's possible to minimize the risk of developing these complications by working towards keeping diabetes under tight control. What has passed is in the past and the important message this morning is that we all continue with the advice of our health care professional and work towards keeping our diabetes under control. Much like the parents of children with diabetes have to do on a daily basis.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Tax on unhealthy food - A tax to save your life!
Sugar, rum, and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.
— Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776
BREAKING NEWS: Quoted from the New England Journal of Medicine April 8, 2009, on-line edition. Will appear in print edition of the NEJM on April 30, 2009.
The obesity epidemic has inspired calls for public health measures to prevent diet-related diseases. One controversial idea is now the subject of public debate: food taxes.
Forty states already have small taxes on sugared beverages and snack foods, but in the past year, Maine and New York have proposed large taxes on sugared beverages. Because excess consumption of unhealthful foods underlies many leading causes of death, food taxes at local, state, and national levels are likely to remain part of political and public health discourse.
Sugar-sweetened beverages (soda sweetened with sugar, corn syrup, or other caloric sweeteners and other carbonated and uncarbonated drinks, such as sports and energy drinks) may be the single largest driver of the obesity epidemic. A recent analysis found that the intake of sugared beverages is associated with increased body weight, poor nutrition, and displacement of more healthful beverages; increasing consumption increases risk for obesity and diabetes; Studies show that reduced intake of soft drinks improves health. Studies that do not support a relationship between consumption of sugared beverages and health outcomes tend to be conducted by authors supported by the beverage industry.
Sugared beverages are marketed extensively to children and adolescents, and in the mid-1990s, children's intake of sugared beverages surpassed that of milk. In the past decade, per capita intake of calories from sugar-sweetened beverages has increased by nearly 30%; beverages now account for 10 to 15% of the calories consumed by children and adolescents. For each extra can or glass of sugared beverage consumed per day, the likelihood of a child's becoming obese increases by 60%.
Taxes on tobacco products have been highly effective in reducing consumption, and data indicate that higher prices also reduce soda consumption. A review conducted by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity suggested that for every 10% increase in price, consumption decreases by 7.8%. An industry trade publication reported even larger reductions: as prices of carbonated soft drinks increased by 6.8%, sales dropped by 7.8%, and as Coca-Cola prices increased by 12%, sales dropped by 14.6%.5 Such studies — and the economic principles that support their findings — suggest that a tax on sugared beverages would encourage consumers to switch to more healthful beverages, which would lead to reduced caloric intake and less weight gain.
An estimated $79 billion is spent annually for overweight and obesity alone — half at taxpayers' expense. In the case of sugared beverages, marketers commonly make health claims about energy and vitamins to young children who often cannot distinguish a television program from an advertisement. A penny-per-ounce excise tax would raise an estimated $1.2 billion in New York State alone, which could be used to promote better health.
Americans consume about 250 to 300 more calories daily today than they did several decades ago, and nearly half this increase is accounted for by consumption of sugared beverages.
Such a reduction in calorie consumption would be expected to substantially reduce the risk of obesity and diabetes and may also reduce the risk of heart disease and other conditions.
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