The number of people with diabetes has soared by 150,000 in the past year and one in 20 adults in the UK now has the condition, according to the latest figures from GP practices.
The data released by the charity Diabetes UK also shows that almost one in 10 adults, or 5.5 million people, are obese. The charity described these figures as “shocking” and it is calling on the government to put into practice its rhetoric on tackling health problems through prevention.
There is a strong link with type 2 diabetes and being overweight, sedentary and eating unhealthily. About 90% of diabetics – 2.5 million people in the UK – suffer from the type 2 condition. The figures, collected from GP practices between April 2009 and March this year, showed that about 2.8 million people aged 17 and over have diabetes — an increase of more than 150,000 since last year.
Another 1.1 million people are likely to suffer from diabetes without being aware of it. Diabetes UK has a risk score test on its website that can help to show an individual’s likelihood of developing type 2.
The figure for people over 16 registered as obese has risen to more than 5.5 million – an increase of more than 265,000 compared with the previous year.
Diabetes symptoms
Simon O’Neill, Diabetes UK’s director of care, information and advocacy, said: “Once again we see a shocking rise in diabetes and obesity rates in the UK. Many, but not all, people develop type 2 diabetes because they are overweight or obese so we must keep up the mantra of five fruit and veg a day, encourage daily physical activity and warn of the potentially devastating consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle.
“The obesity-fuelled type 2 diabetes epidemic is a clear example of where the new coalition government’s rhetoric of tackling health problems through prevention must be turned into action.”
He added: “Failure to act now means a bleak future of spiralling NHS costs and worsening public health,” referring to the £9bn a year that the NHS spends on diabetes – 10% of its current budget. If diabetes is not diagnosed early, or if it is poorly managed, he said, it can result in blindness, limb amputation, heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.
The Child Growth Foundation, a children’s health charity, warned that levels of diabetes and obesity were likely to rise still further. Tam Fry, who is the charity’s honorary chairman as well spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, said: “These figures confirm how appalling the levels of diabetes and obesity are in this country, and they would be even worse if they included children. Unfortunately we can expect levels to go up even if in some parts of the country obesity may be being brought under control. The fat are just getting fatter and suffering the consequences of excess weight.”
The risk factors are being overweight or having a large waist; being aged over 40 (or over 25 for black and south Asian people); and having a close relative with diabetes. Its symptoms include urinating frequently, especially at night, increased thirst, extreme tiredness, unexplained weight loss, slow healing of cuts and wounds and blurred vision. In type 2 diabetes the symptoms may not be immediately apparent and it can go undiagnosed for up to a decade, exacerbating health problems if it is untreated.
The picture in the US is much worse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that the prevalence of diabetes could increase to between one and five and one in three adults in 40 years.
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Almost one in 10 adults is now so obese that their doctors consider their weight a serious health risk.
More than 5.5 million over the age of 16 are officially on the obesity register kept by doctors – up by a quarter of a million in the past year alone.
And almost 2.8 million people are being treated for Type 2 diabetes, a disease strongly linked to a sedentary lifestyle and an unhealthy diet.
Experts said the shocking rise was a wake-up call for people to change their lifestyle before it is too late, reports the Daily Mail.
According to the Office for National Statistics, a quarter of the population is defined as obese as measured by Body Mass Index, based on weight and height.
However, this may also classify heavily-muscled athletes as obese when they are far from unhealthy.
The biggest jump was in England where there was a 5.5 percent rise between 2008-09 and 2009-10, up from 4.4 million to 4.6 million.
In many cases, Type 2 diabetes – the ‘lifestyle’ form of the disease – can be prevented by maintaining a healthy weight, taking regular exercise and eating a balanced diet rich in fruit and vegetables but low in fat, sugar and salt.
Ian Campbell, medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said the latest figures underestimated the true level of obesity and diabetes because many thousands were not on the registers of general practitioners.
The number of people with diabetes in the UK has risen by around 5% in the past year, says a health charity.
Diabetes UK warns that failure to act could have serious implications for public health.
The disease, which is linked to an unhealthy diet and being overweight, can result in heart disease and strokes.
Data from GPs shows that one in 10 of the UK population is now obese.
In the UK, there are currently 2.8 million people diagnosed with diabetes, an increase of 150,000 during the last year.
Simon O’Neill, director of care, information and advocacy at Diabetes UK, said he was shocked by the rise in diabetes and obesity rates.
“Many, but not all, people develop Type 2 diabetes because they are overweight or obese so we must keep up the mantra of ‘five fruit and veg a day’, encourage daily physical activity and warn of the potentially devastating consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle.”
Around 90% of people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, which is strongly linked to being overweight or obese, leading a sedentary lifestyle and eating unhealthily.
Simon O’Neill says that this epidemic must be tackled without delay.
“Failure to act now means a bleak future of spiralling NHS costs and worsening public health,” he said.
People at risk of Type 2 diabetes can often decrease that risk by losing weight, doing more physical exercise and improving their diet.
ONE person is diagnosed with diabetes every 40 minutes in Scotland, according to new figures that show the spread of the condition is faster than experts had previously predicted.
Statistics obtained by The Scotsman reveal that in the past 12 months another 14,000 Scots were added to those registered with GPs as diabetic.
At the current rate, Scotland faces a diabetes timebomb, with one in ten Scots expected to suffer from the disease by 2030.
The condition is increasing faster than anywhere else in the UK and experts blame the nation’s endemic obesity.
In the past year, the number of registered diabetics in Scotland increased by 6.7 per cent, compared with 6 per cent in Northern Ireland, 5.7 per cent in England and 4.8 per cent in Wales.
There are now 223,943 people aged 17 and older registered as diabetic in Scotland, or 4.1 per cent of the population. Another 60,000 Scots are believed to have the disease but not know it.
Care and treatment of the disease costs the NHS in Scotland an estimated £1 billion a year. One health expert said many Scots “can’t help themselves” for bad eating habits.
Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said the vast majority of cases were caused by obesity, and that the average age of diagnosis will go down.
He said: “Education alone will not work. A fair proportion of the population cannot help themselves from the abundance of high-density calorie and nice tasting treats. Unless we change our food culture, it’s going to be hard to change these trajectories.
“Unless people go for a blood test, they are not going to get picked up as having diabetes. It needs to be systematic that we are looking for diabetes, not just when a suspicion is there – though cuts in funding may go against that.”
Projections by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) warn of rises of almost 40 per cent in the number of diabetics by 2030, by then totalling almost 400,000 in Scotland.
The estimates include both type 1 and type 2 diabetics and thousands who are likely to remain undiagnosed, making the figures beyond 2010 significantly higher than those registered with GPs.
Already, nearly one in ten people are diabetic in the Western Isles and Dumfries and Galloway, with Shetland, Highlands, Lanarkshire and Orkney all climbing towards the mark.
Diabetes UK had previously predicted that four million Britons would be diabetic by 2025, including a million undiagnosed.