Diabetes consumes the daily lives of many. According to researchers, if you are Asian, African, or Caribbean decent, you are at a higher risk of contracting Type 2 Diabetes and early screening could prevent and lower your chances of heart desease, strokes and even amputation. Read more below.
British people of South Asian, African or African Caribbean descent are significantly more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than their European counterparts, researchers have warned.
Half had developed the disease by the age of 80 in a study of 4,200 people living in London – approximately twice the figure for Europeans.
The researchers said the rates were “astonishingly high”.
The findings were published in the journal Diabetes Care.
Losing control of blood sugar levels increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputations. Type 2 diabetes is often linked to lifestyle and diet.
Some ethnic groups are already known to have a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. However, one of the researchers at Imperial College London, Dr Therese Tillin, said it may be down to them simply getting the disease earlier in their lives and the figures would even out over time.
But the study showed: “The rates don’t slow down as you get older. The astonishing difference continues,” Dr Tillin said.
She warned this could be a sign of things to come with the potential for soaring levels of diabetes around the world as more people lived in cities and enjoyed a calorie-rich diet.
