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(14 November is observed as the World Diabetes Day. The alarming rate of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes in India has experts worried. Nearly two-third children in Indian cities have abnormal blood sugar levels. The World Health Organisation has described the situation an ‘exploding nightmare’)
It’s no secret that parts of India have come a long way from its malnourished past. The signs are all around us, from supersize kids to XXL clothing lines and mushrooming weight loss clinics. It’s a dual epidemic out there.
Experts call it ‘diabesity’.
According to a latest analysis by the World Health Organisation, one in four kids in the country between the ages five and 19 years of age is obese. The last nation-wide estimate by the National Diabetes Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation, pegged obesity at 14 percent in the same age group.
Our children are literally eating themselves to an early death!
The stunning rise in obesity translates to one in every ten Indian children being prone to type 2 diabetes – till 30 years back, type 2 diabetes in children and young adults was nonexistent.
In the last decade, experts say that the incidence of type 2 diabetes in children has increased ten fold. The consequence is that children could potentially face irreversible damage to growth, heart, kidney and other vital organs.
The findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine, could mean big trouble for little kids – poorly managed diabetes significantly spikes the risk of heart disease, eye problems, nerve damage, amputations and kidney failure in the future.
No one knows why drugs which work well in adults with diabetes remain largely ineffective in kids. Rapid growth, puberty, and hormonal changes might have a role to play.
Is our healthcare system equipped to handle such a crisis?
Diabetes triples the risk of heart disease, doubles the risk of depression, causes kidney disease in one-third of patients, and results in advanced retinopathy—bleeding in the retina that damages vision – in up to 30 percent of cases.
The ultimate scary truth, says Dr Ramen Goel, is the number of pre-diabetic children, almost thrice as much as the diabetics. So are we even remotely prepared to handle this tsunami of patients by the time these teens become adults?
It’s a scary picture.
Dear parents, unless your child eats a balanced, calorie-controlled diet, physical activities alone won’t lower the risk.
According to the World Health Organisation, in 2012, an estimated 1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes and more than 80 percent of diabetes deaths occurred in developing countries like India.
Don’t let your child become a part of this statistic. Take control. NOW.
Also Watch: Diabetes DeQoded: A Crash Course in This Morbid Disease
(14 November is observed as the World Diabetes Day. The alarming rate of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes in India has experts worried. Nearly two-third children in Indian cities have abnormal blood sugar levels. The World Health Organisation has described the situation an ‘exploding nightmare’)
It’s no secret that parts of India have come a long way from its malnourished past. The signs are all around us, from supersize kids to XXL clothing lines and mushrooming weight loss clinics. It’s a dual epidemic out there.
Experts call it ‘diabesity’.
According to a latest analysis by the World Health Organisation, one in four kids in the country between the ages five and 19 years of age is obese. The last nation-wide estimate by the National Diabetes Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation, pegged obesity at 14 percent in the same age group.
Our children are literally eating themselves to an early death!
The stunning rise in obesity translates to one in every ten Indian children being prone to type 2 diabetes – till 30 years back, type 2 diabetes in children and young adults was nonexistent.
In the last decade, experts say that the incidence of type 2 diabetes in children has increased ten fold. The consequence is that children could potentially face irreversible damage to growth, heart, kidney and other vital organs.
The findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine, could mean big trouble for little kids – poorly managed diabetes significantly spikes the risk of heart disease, eye problems, nerve damage, amputations and kidney failure in the future.
No one knows why drugs which work well in adults with diabetes remain largely ineffective in kids. Rapid growth, puberty, and hormonal changes might have a role to play.
Is our healthcare system equipped to handle such a crisis?
Diabetes triples the risk of heart disease, doubles the risk of depression, causes kidney disease in one-third of patients, and results in advanced retinopathy—bleeding in the retina that damages vision – in up to 30 percent of cases.
The ultimate scary truth, says Dr Ramen Goel, is the number of pre-diabetic children, almost thrice as much as the diabetics. So are we even remotely prepared to handle this tsunami of patients by the time these teens become adults?
It’s a scary picture.
Dear parents, unless your child eats a balanced, calorie-controlled diet, physical activities alone won’t lower the risk.
According to the World Health Organisation, in 2012, an estimated 1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes and more than 80 percent of diabetes deaths occurred in developing countries like India.
Don’t let your child become a part of this statistic. Take control. NOW.
Also Watch: Diabetes DeQoded: A Crash Course in This Morbid Disease
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Published: 13 Nov 2016,07:09 PM IST