Bengaluru: As diabetes continues to grow at an alarming rate in the country, it's not just older people who are falling prey to it but also children.
A recent report by the health ministry shows that the first phase of the Registry of People with Diabetes in India has 5,546 patients with youth-onset diabetes, in which Type 1 Mellitus (T1DM) with the prevalence of (63.9 percent) is followed by youth-onset Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) accounting to 25.3 percent.
"We are seeing an increasingly high number of girls and boys who are in the Std X to XII being evaluated for early onset of diabetes," said Dr Subramanian Kannan, HoD, Endocrinology and Diabetology, Narayana Health City.
Recent data analysis by RV Metropolis, the subsidiary of Metropolis Healthcare, India's Leading Pathology Chain, revealed that 24% of samples tested from Bengaluru have been reported diabetic.
The study included 1,95,162 random samples of people between the age group of 20 and 80 that were collected over a period of three years.
With over 425 million people currently living with diabetes across the world, 1 in every 2 person at present is living with diabetes undiagnosed. On the World Diabetes Day, marked on November 14, themed around 'Family and Diabetes', experts said that early diagnosis and treatment are key to prevent the complications of diabetes and achieve healthy outcomes.
Dr Srinath, Consultant-Endocrinologist at BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals, said, "Diabetes is a metabolic syndrome that features a combination of hormonal and nutritional imbalances which can affect any individual, but more importantly people with high risk.
People with diabetes in the family need to be very watchful, but again we often see and diagnose patients with prediabetes or full-blown diabetes at a young age without a family history. This is especially seen in young professionals with a sedentary lifestyle."
Diabetes is always hereditary - myth!
Doctors said that though family history is one of the risk factors, it does not always result in diabetes. "Diabetes is a polyfactorial condition. A disease that was seen affecting adults after 50 has shifted a decade earlier in its onset with a lot of new cases among 30 to 40-year-olds. In case of genetic condition, it is mostly through expecting mothers. The baby while in the mother's womb is more likely to share a high glucose environment resulting in either in a preterm small baby or a big baby. Either way, the child born will have limited reserve of cells to make insulin," said Dr Kannan. He said that though people are aware of the disease, nobody is taking action. "It's time to act and every single member of a family should stay active, healthy and participate in some kind of physical activity, like walking, yoga, gym etc," he said. 24% of samples studied in Bengaluru positive n More youngsters falling prey to condition
