UNI

Hyderabad, Nov 14: Diabetes is no longer a rich man's disease. The changing lifestyle of Indians has made them prone to Type 2 diabetes, earning notorious distinction for India as the 'diabetic capital of the world'.

"The number of diabetic patients now totals around 37 million in the country out of the total 150 million in the world and it is growing rapidly," noted endocrinoligist Dr Prasun Deb, said, speaking on the eve of the 'World Diabetes Day 2006' being observed in Hyderabad with the slogan 'Diabetes Care for Everyone'.

The future looks more bleak for India with modernisation and urbanisation, he told reporters in Hyderabad, quoting World Health Organisation estimates that the country would have 57.5 million diabetic people by the year 2025.

Compared to north India, the incidence was more in the south, particularly in cities like Chennai and Hyderabad with about 16 per cent people becoming diabetic. More of India's 1.1 billion people seem to be vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes, a disease of high blood sugar brought on by obesity and genes, often culminating in blindness, amputations and heart failure, he said.

With pronounced genetic vulnerability to the disease, Indians tended to contract it 10 years earlier than people in developed countries. It would have the biggest impact on adults of working age in the country.

Advocating early diagnosis through inexpensive blood testing, he said people could prevent Type 2 diabetes and its complications by maintaining a healthy diet, achieving and maintaining an ideal body weight, avoiding tobacco use, regular physical activity for 30 minutes, blood pressure control, foot care and starting appropriate medication in the pre-diabetes stage itself.

Other cost-saving interventions included screening for retinopathy (which causes blindness), blood lipid control (to regulate cholesterol levels) and screening for early signs of diabetes-related kidney disease.