World Health Day 2016: Diabetes
InVite® Health is celebrating World Health Day – a day where the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for education and action on diabetes.
In a new release announced on April 6, 2016, WHO reports that the number of people living with diabetes has almost quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults, with most living in developing countries.
How Diabetes Affects Your Body
Scientific Director for InVite® Health, Jerry Hickey, R. Ph states, “Diabetes is a life-threatening disease that causes your blood sugar and triglycerides to become continuously and severely elevated. This excess of circulating blood sugar is very destructive, causing inflammation in the heart and circulatory system, as well as in the eyes, brain, kidneys, and nerve tissue. Diabetes may lead to a myriad of other serious health conditions as well. Diabetes occurs when your cells become resistant to the effects of the hormone insulin for various reasons. Insulin normally stores sugar in your cells. However, long before full-blown diabetes occurs, there is a period of what is referred to as “pre-diabetes”. Your blood sugar is already modestly increased and damage to the kidneys, blood vessel walls, and eyes is beginning to take place. Perhaps it should be renamed “early stage diabetes,” as even a modest elevation in blood sugar should always be looked at seriously.”
There are three main forms of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. According to WHO, the cause of type 1 diabetes is unknown and individuals with type 1 diabetes require daily insulin administration. Type 2 diabetes is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity and is now increasingly occurring in children and young people. Gestational diabetes is a temporary condition, reports WHO, that occurs in pregnancy and carries long-term risk of type 2 diabetes. This temporary condition occurs when blood glucose values are above normal but below what is considered full-blown diabetes.
World Health Organization
Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, explains, “If we are to make any headway in halting the rise in diabetes, we need to rethink our daily lives: to eat healthily, be physically active, and avoid excessive weight gain. Even in the poorest settings, governments must ensure that people are able to make these healthy choices and that health systems are able to diagnose and treat people with diabetes.”
For more information on diabetes and World Health Day, visit the World Health Organization’s website at http://www.who.int/en/.
How are you celebrating World Health Day? Share your feedback in the comments!
