One In Eight New York Adults Has Diabetes: South Asians At Highest Risk
31
January
After an unprecedented door-to-door survey, the New York City Health Department has released survey data with some shocking news: More than 100,000 New York Adults (or about 1 in 8 adults) have diabetes while nearly twice as many are at a high risk of developing the disease because of a condition called prediabetes (high blood sugar, though not yet diabetic).
What makes this bad situation even worse is the fact that one in three diabetics are not even aware of their condition thus preventing them from taking positive steps to combat the disease and its ugly repercussions including heart disease, amputation and blindness. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city health commissioner, says “This confirms that we as a society are doing a rotten job both preventing and controlling diabetes.”
During November of late last year, in World Diabetes Day: An urgent wake-up call, I wrote about the devastating impact of diabetes especially in India where the population is, unfortunately, genetically susceptible to this disease. In that post I also linked to Modern Ways Open India’s Doors to Diabetes a revealing New York Times article which also talks about this South Asian link to diabetes.
Well, what can change in just 3 months?:
But Dr. Frieden said he was startled by some of the specific findings, including the very high numbers among Asian-Americans, especially those from South Asia. The study indicates that more than half of the New Yorkers whose families are from the Indian subcontinent have either diabetes or prediabetes.
Asians have the highest rates in the city, 16 percent diabetic and 32 percent prediabetic. The city’s report does not differentiate Asians by region, but officials said that the data in their study and others show that East Asians have below-average rates of diabetes, while South Asians have by far the highest of any large group.
-Via New York Times
As I have written before, if there is anything good about type 2 diabetes, it is that it can almost always be prevented with a mixture of a healthful diet and regular exercise.
Once again, let us resolve to spread this message among our peers and prevent this monster from rearing its ugly head in our homes and communities.
-Via Sepia Mutiny
Technorati Tags: health, fitness, nutrition, diabetes, newyork, south_asia, india
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1. George Curry | February 1st, 2007 at 8:47 am
Fitness, or lack of it, is not just a big issue in New York. We have found the same trend in Europe, and especially in the UK. We have made changes at school level in meals provided at lunch time, but the saddest thing is that this is often without the parents encouragement or support. This means that school children believe that eating good food in school is an unnatural act, and some parents have been taking orders for fast food at the school gates. It is only with continual education and encouragement of children to exercise regularly and enjoy it, will fitness become the norm rather than the exception.