_{06 July 2012}

India's diabetes problem linked to lifestyle 

India and China will continue to have the largest number of diabetics in the world in the coming years due to rapid lifestyle shifts in these two countries, a leading health expert said here on Thursday.

With around 90 million diabetics, China last year outnumbered India, which has 61.3 million diabetics.

"China and India have the maximum number of diabetics. It is mainly because of their huge population size and rapidly changing lifestyle over the last two decades," said Jeane Claude Mbanya, president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

"The physical activities have reduced. Also, due to huge population size, there is higher probability of acquiring diabetes through certain genes," Mbanya said at a the fifth Asian consensus meeting on metabolic surgery.

The sedentary lifestyle resulting in obesity is linked to diabetes in over 80 percent of cases.

According to the Diabetes Atlas by the IDF, China had overtaken India as the 'Diabetes Capital of the World' last year. United States stands third in the list with over 23 million diabetics. 

For more on this story see the Time of India newspaper online.