Diabetes rates may double in Middle East in the next few years

American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, Dr Robert Ratner, discussed ways to prevent diabetes rather than treat in a multi-departmental discussion at Hamad Medical Corporation.

He addressed over 300 physicians and other healthcare professionals involved in diabetes care. His participation in the grand round was an important teaching tool for medical education.

Dr Ratner and colleagues from ADA visited HMC to explore collaborations and discuss advancements in diabetes care and diabetes prevention education in Qatar, where the incidence is among the highest in the world.

ADA is the largest voluntary health organisation in the US that deals with diabetes and its complications. It also led Stop Diabetes, a movement to end the devastating toll the disease takes on the lives of millions across the US.

“Diabetes is increasing around the world, but there is a belt around which it is increasing most rapidly, including sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, where incidence rates are expected to double within the next 10 to 15 years,” Dr Ratner said.

“It will make caring for diabetics highly problematic and, more importantly, can result in needless complications," he added.

Dr Ratner discussed findings of the Diabetes Prevention Programme, a multi-centre clinical research study which found that overweight participants with pre-diabetes who lost modest weight through dietary changes and increased physical exercise sharply reduced their chances of developing diabetes.

Pre-diabetes is a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. The study found that taking the oral diabetes drug Metformin (Glucophage) also reduced the risk, although less dramatically.

Dr Ratner pointed out that the epidemic of diabetes was not due to new gene mutations in the population. “Our genes are the same as they were 50 years ago. What has happened is that our way of living has changed – we walk less, exercise less, and we eat too much, because our environment is not conducive to living healthy lifestyles,” HMC’s Medicine Department Chairman, Professor Abdul Badi Abou-Samra, said.

Source | Image: QL Flickr Group