Things you may not know about diabetes

1. Diabetes is an ancient disease. The earliest known written record can be traced back to 1500 BC-in the Atharva Veda as well as in Egyptian Ebers Papyrus. Both refer to the signature symptom:frequent urination

2. Diabetes is fast becoming the biggest global epidemic, affecting about 415 mn people. While hereditary factors play a role, rapid changes in lifestyle and diet (from nutritious homemade foods to junk foods) are the triggers, leading to obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

3. One-third of all patients don’t know they have the disease, as Type 2 diabetes often doesn’t have any symptoms (only about 5 per cent of all people wi

4. Type 2 diabetes accounts for around 90 per cent of all diabetes worldwide. Type 1 diabetes is characterised by lack of insulin production, while Type 2 results from the body’s ineffective use of insulin

5. Forty per cent Indians around the age of 55 have diabetes, while 35 per cent have prediabetes

6. The third type is gestational diabetes, characterised by hyperglycaemia, or raised blood sugar, first recognised during pregnancy

7. Some 69.1 mn suffer from diabetes in India, projected to go up to 87 mn by 2030. India is considered the diabetes hub of the world. Two per cent Indian adults in cities and 1 per cent in villages had diabetes in the 1970s. Today, in big cities like Chennai and Delhi, the prevalence rate is almost 25 per cent

8. People with diabetes are twice as likely to develop heart disease than those without diabetes. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults

9. Today, the treating physician has a wide variety of drugs to choose from. Insulin injections have become better and with less side-effects. Apart from these, monitoring of diabetes is also much more easy

10. Deaths from diabetes are projected to rise by over 50 per cent in the next 10 years. And 80 per cent occur in low- and middle-income countries. Diabetes deaths are slated to double between 2016 and 2030