Type 2 diabetes is a serious, life-long disease that currently affects 4.9 million people in the UK. More people than ever have diabetes. More people than ever are at risk of type 2 diabetes. If poor lifestyle choices continue to be made, it is predicted that 5.5 million people will have diabetes by 2030.
Diabetes, especially type 2, has symptoms that can often be overlooked, resulting in around 850,000 people who are yet to be diagnosed. It is important to recognise symptoms early in order to make healthy changes to your lifestyle to prevent the long-term damage of it to your body.
Lifestyle interventions - including diet, physical activity and sustained weight loss - can be effective in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes by about 50%.
Some of the biggest risk factors include: obesity, old age and genetics. Focusing on genetics, people of south asian or african descent are the most susceptible to type 2 diabetes. Astonishingly, South Asians are six times more likely to have diabetes than Europeans. Why is this the case? It is not entirely known, but many experts believe diet, lifestyle and different ways of storing fat in the body all play a major part in upping the risk for this group.
Mr Hardik Mehta is a British Indian with type 2 diabetes. He explains his journey through being diagnosed with diabetes, lifestyle changes he has made and treatment that he receives in an interview.
"With a family history, where my father, grandmother and perhaps other ancestors suffered from diabetes , I wasn’t surprised to have it too. Over the last few years, I have become slightly more conscious of what I eat and since then I have lost about 15 - 20 kg of weight, although I was already quite fit and in good shape before. After being diagnosed, regularly pricking my finger to check my blood sugar has become the new normal and my visits to the GP have become more frequent. An unexpected side effect, that I suspect arose from the condition, is irregular sleep patterns - I often get less than 5 hours a night!"
Diabetes can often be a risk factor for heart disease. Mr Mehta's father (who also has diabetes) suffered from a heart attack last year. He then had to have multiple surgeries to get stents fitted and have a coronary artery bypass.
Therefore, it is important to identify key symptoms including: going to the toilet more often, feeling more tired, losing weight, blurred vision or feeling extremely thirsty.
