Obesity and Diabetes Epidemic: World Diabetes Day- 2018

Gundu H R Rao*

Received: November 03, 2018;   Published: November 13, 2018

DOI: 10.32474/ADO.2018.01.000120

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Abstract

Just the other day, I wrote an Editorial for another journal on World Diabetes Day. Before that, it was the World Thrombosis Day. Think of just metabolic diseases, you have, - World Hypertension Day (May 17), World Obesity Day (Oct 11), World Heart Day (Sept 29), World Thrombosis Day (Oct 13), World Diabetes Day (Nov 14). The list keeps growing every year. Whenever I am asked to participate, in these World Observation Days or asked to write about these important annual days, I ask myself, what have we done to arrest, reduce or prevent these chronic metabolic diseases? What can be done about the raising epidemics of chronic diseases? These are hard questions to ask? Much harder, to answer.

All that we can do is, just like we do for New Year’s Day, take a pledge to do something that will make a difference. Metabolic diseases, such as hypertension, excess weight, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and vascular diseases, have reached epidemic proportions worldwide. In the last three decades globally, obesity has increased two-fold and diabetes, four-fold. No country has stopped, reversed or prevented the trends, in the increase of these chronic metabolic diseases. We and others are of the opinion, that if the metabolic risks are recognized earlier, then just lifestyle modifications may be enough to prevent or postpone the development of diabetes and associated chronic clinical complications.

Abbreviations: World Hypertension Day (WHD); World Obesity Day (WOD); World Heart Day (WHD); World Thrombosis Day (WTD); World Diabetes Day (WDD); World Health Organization (WHO); World Obesity Federation (WDF); International Diabetes Federation (IDF); European Association for the Study of Diabetes (ESAD); Civil society organisations (CSOs)

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