Currently, about 14% of the Chilean population has diabetes, a disease that represents a serious public health problem for the country. This figure has also been increasing in recent years, largely due to excess weight and high consumption of processed foods. In this sense, specialists from the University of Chile emphasize the importance of regulating our weight and keeping it as normal as possible.
Every November 14, World Diabetes Day is commemorated, a date established to raise awareness and call for self-care in the face of a disease that – according to WHO data – is suffered by nearly 420 million adults in the world and 62 million on the continent. Chile is no exception to these indices, showing a constant increase in recent decades. This is confirmed by the National Health Survey, which shows a 3% increase in diabetes cases in just seven years.
These figures are expected to increase even more after the pandemic, as the doctor points out. Patricia Gomezdiabetologist and head of the Diabetes section of the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile, who points to excess weight and a sedentary lifestyle as the main risk factors for type 2 diabetes, which represents 90% of the cases in the country. “Currently, the prevalence of diabetes is very bad and we already know that this will increase as the years go by,” she says.
Concern about this disease is shared by the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA) of the University of Chile, whose director, Francisco Perezagrees in blaming the weight gain of the Chilean population as the cause of the sustained growth in cases of type 2 diabetes. “You have to think that Chile currently occupies second place in terms of overweight and obesity according to OECD statistics.. Therefore, it is tremendously relevant as a variable to consider within this new epidemiology of type two diabetes,” he explains.
The incidence of these factors is declared in the same National Health Survey, which provided figures close to 87% of sedentary lifestyle for the Chilean population, and which observes that only 15% have a good level of consumption of fruits and vegetables. This figure also contrasts with the country’s second place in consumption of processed foods. “If you put together that triad of elements, It is evident that we are a country at risk of chronic diseases, diabetes being one of them, but also fatty liver or hypertension”, warns Pérez.
In this sense, avoiding excess weight is one of the main recommendations provided by experts, as stated by the doctor, diabetologist and academic at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile, Ana Claudia Villarroel, who calls for trying to regulate weight and keep it as normal as possible. “If you have excessive weight gain, try to lose at least 10% or ideally 15% of the excess weightbecause that is going to have an important impact on the prevention of diabetes,” he says.
What are the symptoms and how is diabetes treated?
Diabetes occurs when the body begins to have difficulties regulating blood sugar levels. As Dr. Villarroel points out, this occurs due to a defect in the production or quantity of the hormone insulin, which is responsible for regulating sugar levels. In this case, There are two types of diabetes: type one, caused by hereditary factors and occurring at an early age, and type two, which commonly arises during adolescence (although it can occur at any age) and is caused by a depletion in the insulin production process.
As the latter is one of the most frequent and preventable, a series of myths have emerged about its causes. This is stated by Dr. Patricia Gómez, who denies that fasting is one of the causes of type two diabetes. Instead, she points to overeating as the main culprit. “It is not that fasting for a long time is bad, what is bad is skipping meals and the next meal you do not eat one plate but two plates of food because you are very hungry and you are not satisfied,” says Dr. Gómez.
On the other hand, one of the main problems associated with diabetes is its difficult detection as it is an asymptomatic disease. In fact, according to Dr. Gómez, the 50% of people who have diabetes are unaware of their pathology. “Imagine the large number of patients who have diabetes and who do not know that they have diabetes because this is an asymptomatic disease, and when there are symptoms it is when the disease is already very advanced,” says the diabetologist.
On a medical level, the times of amputations and loss of limbs as a result of this disease are long gone. In this regard, Dr. Gómez states that until 20 years ago there were not many medications to treat diabetes. “In the last decade, a large number of injectable oral drugs have appeared, insulins of different types that allow us to treat diabetes very well.and something that I can assure is that when one is diagnosed with diabetes, if it is on time and the treatment is started appropriately, one will never have complications,” says the head of the Diabetes section of the Hospital Clínico de la U. of Chile
Main Recommendations
This year, the slogan for World Diabetes Day is “educate to prevent in the future”, something that for the director of INTA, Francisco Pérez, summarizes one of the main challenges in the fight and prevention of diabetes, which is to inform the population. “I believe that the main message that the Pan American Health Organization and the International Diabetes Federation are giving has to do with access to good information for the patient, that the patient is informed of the risks that the disease entailswho can act in a positive sense, from the point of view of healthier eating, physical activity, modifying the food environment and sharing this information with their family so that it is a comprehensive approach,” he says.
Along these lines, Dr. Ana Claudia Villarroel recommends eating a Mediterranean dietwhich is an eating pattern that was studied in people from the Mediterranean basin in Europe, because it was seen that they had the lower rates of chronic non-communicable diseases, including diabetes. “It is characterized by being very low in the consumption of ultra-processed products, that is, all the packaged products that the food industry puts into it: food chemicals, flavorings and colorings. In general, the vast majority are three days based on fish and three days based on legumes“Basically,” says Dr. Villarroel.
Dr. Gómez, meanwhile, advises try to eat at least three times a day, advising against having so many snacks, which he describes as another of the myths associated with food. “Three meals a day are enough, but ideally not to skip them so as not to generate that feeling of hunger that often prevents us from having that satiety and eating less,” points out the specialist, who ends by calling on the annual checkup starting at age 35.