Page 6 - Diabetes Mirror

Cover Story

How to Beat
Diabetes

Without Bending
Backwards

Introduction

When you hear the words “pandemic” and
“epidemic”, what comes to your mind?
Well, one would arguably agree that “COVID-19”
would top the list. When a diabetologist hears the
word “epidemic”, diabetes would most certainly
ring a noisier bell. The epidemic of diabetes had
assumed monstrous proportions even in the pre-
pandemic days. According to a 2019 report from
the International Diabetes Federation, about 463
million people around the world have diabetes and
it is projected that these numbers may increase to
578 million by 2030 and 700 million by 2045.1 Why
should one bother?

Type-2 diabetes constitutes about 90% of total
diabetes cases and leads to significant macrovascular
and microvascular complications (see table 1), which
lead to increased healthcare utilization and deaths.2
The burden exerted by these complications of
diabetes have only been made worse by the pandemic.
You would have read and heard that COVID-19
infections cause more damage in people with diabetes
and probably read reports that COVID-19 infections
increase the likelihood of diabetes.3,4 Thus, if we
need to protect ourselves, our families, and our
society at large from the catastrophic influences of
diabetes, then we need to find smarter ways to beat
the abnormality of glucose levels in the new normal.

4 I BETES MIRROR