World’s new diabetes epicentre - INDIA

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 13: Only 2.2 per cent of its adult population is obese but India has the highest prevalence of diabetes in the world. In its latest issue, leading medical journal The Lancet says an estimated 12 per cent of the adult Indian population — in the age group 30-50 — has diabetes. By 2025, diabetes would have targeted about 20 million people in India and another 20 million in China, the two most populous countries.

According to The Lancet, the prevalence of diabetes in India has increased considerably: climbing from 4 per cent in the 1970s to 12 per cent of the population now. The prevalence is more than what it’s in the US which was considered to be the diabetes epicentre not long ago — it’s 8 per cent in the US.
The Lancet says that increase in diabetes in Asia differs from that reported in other parts of the world: it has developed in a much shorter time, in a younger age group and in people with much lower body mass index (BMI). In other words, people need not necessarily be very obese to become diabetic.
The report says that the key differences between the Asian increase and that in the West is the high proportion of body fat and prominent abdominal obesity among Asians compared to those of European origin with similar BMI values. These characteristics mean that Asians have a higher pre-disposition to insulin resistance at a lesser degree of obesity than people of European descent. Another factor is the pronounced dysfunction in early insulin secretion that has been reported in Asian populations. In developed countries, diabetes targets mostly those above 65 years. But in developing countries, most people with diabetes are aged between 45 and 64 years.