More young people now get deadlier type-2 diabetes
Type-2 diabetes that normally afflicts older adults is striking young Indians and it’s striking them harder.
Though young people with type-2 diabetes do not need insulin to survive, they are at greater risk of life-threatening complications, such as kidney damage and heart disease, than people with insulin-dependent diabetes.
One in every four people under 25 with diabetes in India has adult-onset type-2 diabetes, which, by definition, should strike only older adults with a family history of diabetes, obesity, unhealthy diets and inactivity, data from the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR’s) youth diabetes registry shows.
“Youth-onset type-2 diabetes is no longer rare. Family history is strong and obesity, metabolic syndrome and acanthosis nigricans (dark, velvety skin patches) are usually seen in young patients with type-2 diabetes,” says Dr Tanvir Kaur, deputy director general, ICMR.
Type-2 diabetes in the young is more aggressive than in adults, Type 1 Type 2
NEW DELHI:
Gestational diabetes
MODY (maturity onset diabetes of young)
Chronic pancreatitis Others the registry shows. “The risk of complications for younger persons with type-2 diabetes is twofold to threefold higher than type-1 diabetes,” says Dr Nikhil Tandon, head of endocrinology and metabolism, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which is partnering in the registry.
Type-1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system destroys the cells producing insulin in the pancreas, necessitating the use of insulin. “Adult-onset” type-2 diabetes occurs when the body cannot use insulin produced efficiently because of metabolic reasons, forcing the pancreas to overwork and finally stop production.
“People believe that just because young people with type-2 diabetes don’t need insulin, it is less sinister than type-1, but it’s not so. It needs immediate attention because complications are two to three times higher than for young people with type-1 diabetes,” says Dr Tandon.
NEWDELHI:India’s