Type-2 diabetes that normally afflicts older adults is striking young Indians and it\u2019s striking them harder.<\/p>\n
Though young people with type-2 diabetes do not need insulin to survive, they are at greater risk of life-threatening complications, such as kidney damage and heart disease, than people with insulin-dependent diabetes.<\/p>\n
One in every four (25.3%) people under 25 with diabetes in India has adult-onset type-2 diabetes, which, by definition, should strike only older adults with a family history of diabetes, obesity, unhealthy diets and inactivity, data from the Indian Council of Medical Research\u2019s (ICMR\u2019s) youth diabetes registry shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth-onset type-2 diabetes is no longer rare. Family history is strong and obesity, metabolic syndrome and acanthosis nigricans (dark, velvety skin patches) are usually seen in young patients with type-2 diabetes,\u201d says Dr Tanvir Kaur, deputy director general, ICMR.<\/p>\n
Type-2 diabetes in the young is more aggressive than in adults, the registry shows. \u201cIn the young, it is a different beast altogether. The risk of complications for younger persons with type-2 diabetes is twofold to threefold higher than type-1 diabetes,\u201d says Dr Nikhil Tandon, professor and head of endocrinology and metabolism, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which is partnering in the registry.<\/p>\n
There are 70 million adults in India with diabetes, which affects 422 million people worldwide. Type-1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system destroys the cells producing insulin in the pancreas, necessitating the use of insulin to survive. \u201cAdult-onset\u201d type-2 diabetes occurs when the body cannot use insulin produced efficiently because of metabolic reasons, forcing the pancreas to overwork and finally stop production.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople believe that just because young people with type-2 diabetes don\u2019t need insulin, it is less sinister than type-1, but it\u2019s not so. It\u2019s not an aesthetic issue about weight or a mild metabolic disease. It needs immediate attention and treatment because complications are two to three times higher than for young people with type-1 diabetes,\u201d says Dr Tandon.<\/p>\n
The registry data shows 56.1% of the registered young diabetics have been hospitalised at least once for acute diabetes-related complications. One in seven (14.1 %) had at least one complication or \u201cco-morbid\u201d condition, such as hypothyroidism, dyslipidaemia (unhealthy blood fats such as cholesterol and triglycerides), hypertension, tuberculosis, or sepsis.<\/p>\n
An unhealthy lifestyle \u2013 high calorie diet, inactivity and obesity \u2013 clearly plays a role, with urban registries recording more type-2 diabetes cases than rural ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Type-2 diabetes that normally afflicts older adults is striking young Indians and it\u2019s striking them harder. Though young people with type-2 diabetes do not need insulin to survive, they are at greater risk of life-threatening complications, such as kidney damage and heart disease, than people with insulin-dependent diabetes. One in every four (25.3%) people under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10310,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions\/10310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}