Losing kilos vital to beating diabetes

Half the world's diabetes cases could be eliminated by curbing the soaring number of people who are overweight, say health experts.

Diabetes already affects 194 million people and the number is expected to rise to 333 million by 2025. But even a moderate weight loss can delay onset of the illness.

"Fifty per cent of Type 2 diabetes is potentially preventable by stopping excessive weight gain and obesity," said Professor Martin Silink, president-elect of the International Diabetes Federation in London.

"A modest weight loss of 5 to 10 per cent can result in major reductions in the risk of diabetes," he told a teleconference ahead of World Diabetes Day tomorrow.

Diabetes is a chronic illness caused by a deficiency or lack of insulin.

The hormone produced by the pancreas helps the glucose, or sugar, from food get into cells. If a person does not produce enough insulin, or if it isn't used properly by the body, glucose stays in the blood.

People with Type 1 diabetes do not produce any insulin and need daily injections. Type 2 diabetes, the most common type of the disease, is caused by an inability to make enough, or to properly use, insulin.

About 90 per cent of sufferers have Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to being overweight or obese.

"As weight, especially abdominal weight, increases, this makes the body less sensitive to the blood glucose level effect of insulin," Professor Silink said.

The incidence of diabetes has risen quickly in recent decades along with the increasing number of people who are overweight or obese. Scientists now also report a rise in Type 2 diabetes in children.

"Worldwide, the total prevalence of diabetes at the moment is just over 5 per cent. This is 5 per cent of all adults between the ages of 20-79," said Professor Silink.

He described the increases in the disease worldwide as staggering. One in three children born in the US in 2000 will develop diabetes during their lifetime, according to the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta.

"The first step to an effective strategy on obesity and diabetes is to recognise the scale of the problem," said Professor Rhys Williams, vice-president of the IDF.

Diabetes raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney damage and nerve disorders that can lead to foot ulceration and amputations. The World Health Organisation says care costs of diabetes range from 2.5 to 15 per cent of health budgets.

- REUTERS