Diabetes threatens world's native people

Diabetes poses a deadly threat to indigenous people across Asia, the Pacific and America as Western lifestyles and diets replace traditional habits. Researchers from the Brussels-based International Diabetes Foundation, found that indigenous people had a greater genetic risk of contracting type 2 diabetes, which is often undiagnosed. They also have the genes that make diabetes more damaging, hence they are more prone to develop the serious complications of diabetes. About 230 million people or about six percent of adults worldwide have type 2 diabetes, but the problem is even worse in developing nations and among indigenous people, where up to one in two adults have the disease. These findings were presented at a gathering in Melbourne of diabetes experts from the United States, Canada, Australia and the Pacific islands. Diabetes was unknown in the Pacific before World War II, but now the region has some of the highest rates in the world and the existence of indigenous communities is at risk. In the Pacific nation of Nauru, the world's smallest republic with a population of 10,000 people, more than 30 percent of adults aged over 20 years have type 2 diabetes. But the number rises to one in two in adults aged 35 years and above. Similar rates of between 25 to 50 percent of diseased adults are found in American and Canadian indigenous peoples as well as in Australia's Aborigine and Torres Strait Islander populations. Globally, every year there are between 7 to 8 million new cases of diabetes. Experts project more than 250 million people will suffer from the disease by 2025. The researchers stated that the International Diabetes Foundation is pushing for a U.N. resolution to make governments encourage more active lifestyles and better diets. There is a death due to diabetes every 10 seconds, and an amputation due to diabetes every 30 seconds. We are dealing with the biggest epidemic in world history. The world needs to act now if we are to deal with this problem, which threatens to consume world economies and bankrupt health systems. It could also mean the end of some of our treasured indigenous groups.