Indian’s in High Risk Group for Diabetes

The decision to have the World Congress in India was taken by WHO mainly because every fourth diabetic in the world is an Indian. According to WHO projections, the 30 million to 33 million diabetics in India will go up to 40 million by 2010 and 74 million by 2025.

WHO has issued a warning that India will be the Diabetes capital of the world.

Professor A Ramachandran, Head of the Diabetes Research Centre and chairman of the organising committee of the World Diabetic Congress, says:

Indians, irrespective of where they live, fall under the high risk group, hence they have to try to prevent getting diabetes. People were made to understand that diabetes was genetically transmitted, and there was no cure for it. Doctors were talking only about management of the disease. Suddenly, you have shifted the mode to prevention. The theme of the World Diabetic Congress was prevention.

Our genetic susceptibility is more powerful. The propensity to become a diabetic is higher in Indians. We have a low threshold for the risk factors. Americans develop diabetes when the body mass index is 30 and 35. We develop it when the BMI is only 25.

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