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| FILE - In this file photo dated Wednesday, March 23, 2016, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan delivers her speech during a conference in Lyon, central France. Chan said Wednesday April 6, 2016, that excessive weight, aging and population growth have recently driven a huge increase in worldwide cases of diabetes and called for stepped-up measures to reduce risk factors as well as improve treatment and care. |
GENEVA
(AP) -- Excessive weight, obesity, aging and population growth drove a
nearly four-fold increase in worldwide cases of diabetes over the last
quarter-century, affecting 422 million people in 2014, the World Health
Organization reported Wednesday.
In a new
report on diabetes, the U.N. health agency called for stepped-up
measures to reduce risk factors for diabetes and improve treatment and
care that has ballooned in recent years alongside an increase in obesity
rates. WHO said 8.5 percent of the world population had diabetes two
years ago, up from 108 million, or 4.7 percent, in 1980.
On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said:
"We need to rethink our daily lives: to eat healthily, be physically active and avoid excessive weight gain."
The
Geneva-based agency blamed growing consumption of food and beverages
high in sugar. Diabetes increased around the world but affects lower-
and middle-income people more often than wealthier populations. The
rates rose most in Africa, the Middle East and Asia - with the "Eastern
Mediterranean" region more than doubling its prevalence to 13.7 percent
of the population, the only world region with a double-digit percentage.
Diabetes
is a chronic condition in which the body either does not make enough
insulin to break down the sugar in foods or uses insulin inefficiently.
It can cause early death or serious complications like blindness,
stroke, kidney disease or heart disease.
In
the "Global Report on Diabetes" released Wednesday, WHO says diabetes
caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012, and another 2.2 million deaths were
caused by higher-than-optimal blood glucose levels, by increasing the
risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.
The
report does not distinguish between Type 1 diabetes, which involves
deficient insulin production in the body and requires daily insulin
injections for survival, and Type 2, in which the body uses insulin
ineffectively and is more often associated with obesity and relatively
sedentary lifestyles.
The increase has
coincided with growing rates of obesity: In Western countries like the
U.S and Britain, two-thirds of people are now overweight or obese. The
WHO report stopped short of any drastic new recommendations, suggesting
for example that countries build political support and allocate
resources for
diabetes prevention, and "prioritize actions to prevent
people becoming overweight and obese."
The
report said WHO is updating its guidelines on fat and carbohydrate
intake, but said adults can reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes through
regular, adequate physical activity and "healthy diets that include
sufficient consumption of dietary fiber, and replacing saturated fatty
acids with polyunsaturated fatty acids."
