Diabetes is set to affect half the UAE population in the next 25 years unless people change their lifestyles and become more active, said a health expert Wednesday, quoted by the Gulf News.
Fast food diets, obesity and lack of exercise are the contributing factors in the alarming spread of the disease throughout the region, said Abdul Razzak Madani, chairman of the Emirates Medical Association's Diabetes Society.
"The last study carried out by the Ministry of Health showed that 18 percent of the local population is suffering from diabetes," Madani said.
"This figure has increased rapidly over the past few years and is expected to reach 50 percent over the next 25 years if the right steps aren't taken to control it," he warned.
Madani, who is also head of the medical department at Dubai Hospital, said insulin-dependent diabetes, which largely affects children and young adults, makes up just 10 percent of diabetes patients, while Type II diabetes is the most prevalent form of the condition in the UAE.
"Type II diabetes usually affects the older population and is mainly caused by obesity and lack of exercise," he said.
He said the rapid modernization of the UAE over the past few decades had caused the problem to escalate, the paper quoted him as saying.
"In the past 30 years there has been a massive change of lifestyle in terms of the types of jobs people do and their activity levels," he added – Albawaba.com
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