The Rapid Rise of Chronic Diseases
Many news articles have been written recently on the increase in the prevalence in chronic diseases across the globe. Rapid economic development is seen as one possible cause of the swift spread of chronic diseases in the developing world.
Let’s take the increase in the prevalence of Diabetes Type II for example. China has nearly 250 million and India has about 50 million people with Diabetes and prediabetes. It is estimated that by 2030, 366 million or 6% or the world’s population will have Diabetes. This condition has two different modes of contraction, one for the wealthy, mainly being obesity resulting from over-nutrition, and another for the poor via changes in the amount of exercise and diet that once consisted mainly of vegetables but now has switched to foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat. The change of diet is a direct result of the increase in the numbers of people moving from villages to cities in search of work. A study found that the influence of urbanization and change of living habits have a greater influence than genetic predisposition for determining whether a person develops Diabetes Type II, these migrants were twice more likely to have hypertension and to have higher blood sugar than villagers.