A recent study has found that the number of individuals living with diabetes – especially type 2 diabetes – will greater than double in 27 years.
Health experts call the rapid rise in type 2 diabetes “worrying”, calling the chronic disease “the defining disease of the century”.
In 2021, around 529 million people worldwide lived with diabetes. The authors of the study estimate that by 2050 this number will increase to over 1.31 billion.
If the world population reaches 9.8 billion by 2050, as foreseen by the United Nationsby then, one in seven or eight people could have diabetes.
This increase is overwhelmingly due to cases of type 2 diabetes, a preventable condition that’s linked to obesity. (The variety of cases of type 1 diabetes caused by genetic aspects is anticipated to remain stable.)
![graph showing the rapid rise in type 2 diabetes](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000013119736.jpg)
“Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for the vast majority of diabetes cases, is basically preventable and in some cases potentially reversible,” the study authors wrote. published Thursday in The Lancet.
“Nonetheless, all evidence shows that the prevalence of diabetes is increasing worldwide, mainly due to the rise in obesity caused by many aspects,” they added.
Every country on the earth is anticipated to see a pointy rise in diabetes. According to the study, growth will likely be best in North Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Type 2 diabetes carries an increased risk of many other conditions: heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, Alzheimer’s disease, nerve damage, amputations, vision problems, depression, hypertension, heart attacks and a few cancers.
They may strain health systems all over the world beyond breaking point, medical experts fear.
![picture of diabetes test strip](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012647954.jpg?w=1024)
“Diabetes stays certainly one of the best public health threats of our time and can proceed to grow exponentially over the subsequent thirty years in every country, age group and gender, posing a serious challenge to healthcare systems all over the world,” says Dr. of Montefiore and the Medical College of Albert Einstein, he told the Guardian.
As well as to rising obesity rates, the rise in diabetes will likely be driven by other aspects, including an aging population: People over 65 are more likely to develop the disease.
“While most of the people may consider that type 2 diabetes is just related to obesity, lack of exercise and poor food regimen, stopping and controlling it is kind of complex due to many aspects,” Dr. Liane Ong, lead writer of the study and researcher at Washington University School of Medicine, he said in a press release.
“This includes one’s genes, in addition to logistical, social and financial barriers inside a rustic’s structural system, especially in low- and middle-income countries,” she added.