In the Nordic countries, about a million and a half have diabetes, and globally more than 285 million people live with diabetes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has prognosticated that, come the year 2030, there might be as many as 438 million diabetics in the world. With the treatments available today and a well-monitored diabetes, quality of life and life expectancy can remain high. The risks associated with high blood glucose levels must be taken seriously though, and it’s up to the individual
together with doctors and nurses to make sure that the damages caused by high blood sugar levels are reduced to a minimum. Over time, diabetes can cause severe problems in the cardio-vascular system, in the kidneys and in the eyes. There is also risk at hand with overdosing of insulin and immediate complications caused by far too low levels of blood glucose: hypoglycaemia.
So, there are good reasons to take extra special care of yourself if you have diabetes.
According to the World Health Organization, there are about 60 million people with diabetes in the European Region, or about 10.3% of men and 9.6% of women aged 25 years and over. Prevalence of diabetes is increasing among all ages in the European Region, mostly due to increases in overweight and obesity, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
The most distinguishing trait of type 1 diabetes is that the body no longer can produce insulin. This means that blood glucose regulation has to be added to the body. This is usually done by measuring the blood glucose level and injecting the amount of insulin needed. This needs to be done daily often several times per day.
Type 2 diabetes has become one of the fastest growing lifestyle diseases in the world. It is the most common form of diabetes and the number of cases keep increasing. The risk to develop type 2 is strongly associated with high calorie and fat intake, not enough exercise and, most of all obesity – problems that are turning up earlier in life than before. Many scientists believe that we are facing an epidemic as more and more people
abandon traditional diets in favour of western habits. The insulin production might not be affected when you have type 2, but the cells’ ability to use the insulin is restricted. Treatments vary depending on severity, but usually include regimes for eating and exercise, medication to stimulate the body’s own insulin production, but also insulin injections.