Healthy and Wellness

If you have metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes, you have little choice but to change your lifestyle, say the experts. This means exercising more and adopting healthier eating habits, says Professor Paul Zimmet, director of the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

Habit modification can help alleviate conditions such as type 2 diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose from occurring, or, at the very least, delay the onset of these conditions.

Many people with the conditions above are also putting themselves at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Other risk factors for CVD include hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, hypertension, central or abdominal obesity and dyslipidemia.

Eighty percent of people with type 2 diabetes and 50 percent of those with impaired glucose tolerance and/or impaired fasting glucose have metabolic syndrome. This group is at a very high risk for cardiovascular diseases, warns Zimmet.

The existence of the metabolic syndrome can no longer be doubted, with a credible body like the International Diabetes Federation lending weight to treatment options. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by a group of metabolic risk factors. These include (among others) abdominal obesity, blood fat disorders, elevated blood pressure and insulin resistance.

The new recognition of the association of type 2 diabetes with metabolic syndrome has led to a new paradigm in type 2 diabetes therapy.

“Does the metabolic syndrome exist? The immediate response to this question must be a resounding ‘Yes!’” says Zimmet

DIABETIS FACT’S AND FIGURES:

1. Diabetes affects 246 million people worldwide to hit some 380 million by 2025.
2. Each year, almost four million deaths are tied din diabetes and 80 percent of people with diabetes will die from it.
3. In China, where 4.3 percent of the population is affected by diabetes, the number of diabetics within the next 20 years.
4. Every second, two people develop diabetes.