Half of new diabetes victims are under 35
NEARLY half of newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes patients were aged under 35, a survey reveals.
Despite the life-threatening disease most commonly affecting the over-40s, research indicates young people are most at risk.
Experts say the spike in cases creates a time-bomb for the NHS which spends 10 per cent of its budget on treatment.
Forty-eight per cent of patients diagnosed in the past 12 months are in the age group.
Of those, 42 per cent say they could have prevented Type 2 if they were healthier and a similar number were unaware it could lead to serious conditions such as stroke and Diabetes expert Melanie Davies heart disease. In the Lloyds Pharmacy survey of 2,000 adults, half have diabetes. There are around four million people living with the condition in the UK, the majority with Type 2. A further 12 million are at risk. Yesterday, Professor Melanie Davies of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, said: “We have been highlighting this issue for the past five years. There are increasing numbers diagnosed at a younger age with Type 2. “Not only are the numbers under 40 increasing, they have a poorer prognosis and more severe and rapidly developing complications. We now have children with T2 diabetes in the clinic. We are facing the prospect of these younger people being outlived by their parents, which is very depressing.”
Diabetes costs the country more than £10billion a year, with a diagnosis every two minutes, largely due to a sugar snacks obsession.
The prevalence of diabetes is rocketing to a number three times that of all cancers.
A decade ago, no child had Type 2 but there are now more than 500 with an aggressive variant.
Nine in 10 sufferers are overweight or obese. Those with the condition are almost twice as likely to have a heart attack and more than three times as likely to have kidney disease.
Jenny Hirst, co-founder of the charity InDependent Diabetes Trust, said: “It is extremely worrying.
“This evidence suggests reducing sugar content in food and drink should be mandatory for industry and not voluntary.” HAVING been a fully paid-up member of the diabetes community for 14 years, these numbers do not surprise me but they sadden me.
We already know that Type 2 diabetes is commonly associated with poor lifestyle and can be avoided through a combination of diet, exercise and education but, sadly, it seems the younger generation have missed out on being told these vital health tips.
Education is a key way to drive down spiralling Type 2, which is why I founded DPC, as it meets an increasing need for accessible education among doctors, nurses, GPs, dieticians and educators.
There is a lot of attention and funding to tackle obesity in the older generation but these figures clearly show there is an urgent need to target younger people. I