Ahmedabad: Well known clinical diabetologist Padam Shri Dr. V. Mohan, who is leading a pan-India survey cum study about diabetes, today warned that after five years (by 2023) when India would surpass China to become the most populated country in the world, it would also unfortunately become the place with largest population of diabetics or the diabetic capital of the globe.

Addressing a press conference here Dr. Mohan who has won several national and international awards for his contribution in the field of study of the deadly disease, said that the sedentary life style, stress and food habits were the biggest reasons for increase in diabetes cases in India.

He also said that during his study a disturbing trend has also come to fore. ‘Earlier, diabetes which is termed as ‘rich-folk’s disease’, was prevalent among better-off segment of the society both in urban as well as rural areas but now in urban areas the lower strata of the society including lower middle class is more prone to it. It is because of increasing stress among this section in urban areas and also rising health-awareness among richer people,’ he said adding that not so well-off people go for cheaper and less-healthy high carb and junk food items deprived of vegetables and fruits.

Dr Mohan said that after detection of diabetes, individual treatment or precise medication should be done. ‘There are in all around 40 sub types of Diabetes and each one of these should ideally be treated differently and keeping in mind the individual under treatment,’ he said.

He also lamented that the basic medicines for diabetes including regular insulin was not available everywhere in the country. He stressed on the need for it.
To a query he said that a Bengaluru based pharma company was trying to develop oral insulin and if it succeeded then India would be the first country to come up with such an insulin supplement. He also said that researches in the field of diabetes including that with stem cell were on and were giving encouraging results.

He said that Indian currently has 7.3 million diabetic people and around 8 million pre-diabetics who if left untreated would join the wagon of diabetics in 2 to 3 years.

Dr Mohan also stressed on the need for early detection of the disease to prevent complications, its proper and individualized treatment including and spreading awareness about benefits of regular exercise, yoga-meditation and proper eating habits.

He said that HbA1c test alone was not a enough for detection of disease in new cases. He preferred glucose tolerance test over it though the former was the best way to keep an eye on diabetes management in established patients.

He said that during his pan India study started in 2013 and is likely to conclude in next a year and a half or so, survey about diabetics in Gujarat was conducted in 2015 and the data showed that in all 7.3% of Gujaratis were diabetics while 10.3% of those living in cities or urban areas were suffering from this chronic disease. The Study is to cover in all 33 states and Union Territories of which so far 21 have been covered.

Dr Mohan also gave a presentation on precise medication for diabetes.

China currently is the country with most diabetics in the world while India was number two in this regard.

DeshGujarat