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Thursday March 28, 2024

Asians more prone to getting diabetes

By M Waqar Bhatti
April 09, 2018

KARACHI: The president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Prof Nam Han Cho, has claimed that the Asians are more prone to getting diabetes as compared to the people of other continents and races as 65 per cent of the total 425 million diabetics are in Asian countries, and of them the majority were from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, including Pakistan.

“Asians’ bodies produce lesser insulin as compared to people from other continents and they consume more vegetables and fibrous food, but when they switched to sedentary lifestyle and started eating Western diet with more meat, they started becoming diabetics,” Prof Nam Cho said while addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the 4th International Diabetes and Ramadan Conference at a local hotel. The honorary president of the IDF, Prof Samad Shera, the chairman of the IDF MENA region, Prof Abdul Basit, head of Ramadan Study Group, Pakistan, and chairman of the International Conference, Prof Yakoob Ahmedani, Dr Mohammed AK Omer from South Africa and Dr Adel El Sayed from Egypt were also present on the occasion.

Prof Nam Cho, who is an Asian himself from South Korea, claimed Westernisation had emerged as the major cause of the diabetes epidemic in Asian countries, saying a sedentary lifestyle and Western food were the root cause of diabetes among the Asians. “By Westernisation, I mean sedentary lifestyle and food that comprises more meat and carbohydrates. Coca-colonisation and living a mechanised life is killing one person in every six seconds at the hands of diabetes in the world.

“Of the 425 million diabetics in the entire world, as much as 65 per cent are Asians, which is quite alarming. These Asians also include millions of Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and other parts of the world." Speaking about the Muslim diabetics, he said millions of Muslims all over the world would be fasting for 30 days during the coming month of Ramazan and would be facing a lot of issues while fasting, but Allah Almighty tells people to keep their bodies healthy so that they could fast safely and know what to do in case of health emergency. “There is an out-of-control epidemic of diabetes in the world at the moment and every year diabetes is killing more people than malaria, HIV/AIDS and many other diseases combined as around five million people are dying due to diabetes annually in the world,” the IDF president said.

An eminent Pakistani diabetologist and honorary president of the IDF, Prof Samad Shera, said diabetes prevalence, which was only 11 per cent in 1994 in Pakistan, had increased to 26 per cent in 2017, while the number of prediabetics had also increased tremendously, which showed that Pakistan was also affected by the diabetes’ epidemic, which had gripped the entire world. “Joint efforts are required to deal with this epidemic of diabetes in Pakistan, and people should walk more and eat less to prevent themselves from diabetes. Diabetes is spreading equally in the rural areas as well as urban areas of the Pakistan, which shows that sedentary lifestyle has gripped the entire country.” Advising people who would fast during Ramazan and wanted to walk without facing any health issue, including hypoglycemia, Prof Samad Shera said they should rise 30-40 minutes before the Sehri timings and walk before eating Sehri as it would keep their blood sugar controlled.

The chairman of the IDF MENA region, Prof Abdul Basit, said they were holding a Diabetes and Ramadan Conference to educate millions of Muslims who would be fasting in the holy month of Ramazan as there were no data-based, scientific guidelines available for the Muslims. “As many as 148 million Muslims are diabetics as per very conservative estimates and the majority of these Muslims would be keeping fast in the coming month of Ramadan. We need scientific guidelines for these diabetics so that they could safely observe the fasting.”

He added that they would annually hold the Diabetes and Ramadan Conference for the benefit of millions of Pakistanis as well as the other Muslims living in rest of the e world. The chairman of the 4th International Diabetes and Ramadan Conference, Prof Yakoob Ahmedani, said they were holding the annual conference to prepare scientific guidelines and recommendations for over 148 million Muslim diabetics who would be fasting in Ramazan. “We need to educate the diabetic Muslims about the schedule of exercise, diet and dosage of their medicines while fasting, while we also need to train and educate doctors about what to tell to their patients who would be fasting during Ramadan,” he said and added that hopefully Muslim diabetologists from Malaysia, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Pakistan would come up with scientific data and recommendations for over 1.7 billlion Muslims in the world.