UK Health: Diabetes is the fastest modern health crisis

Diabetes diagnosis has more than doubled in the past two decades, making it one of the fastest growing modern health crisis. In the UK, almost 3.7 million people have been diagnosed with the condition, revealed Diabetes UK, a healthcare professional and research charity.

Obesity, stemming from sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, is one of the root causes for the surge in Type 2 diabetes patients. Number of diabetic patients have reportedly increased by 1.9 million since 1998 and currently 12.3 million are at risk of developing the disease because of unhealthy lifestyle.

According to the charity, one in ten people living in Bradford, West Yorkshire, are now diagnosed with the disease and this is three times higher than the 3.6 per cent in Richmond, West London.

The health hazards posed by diabetes can be controlled only if stricter rules are enforced on junk food advertising to children.

"Diabetes is the fastest growing health crisis of our time and the fact that diagnoses have doubled in just 20 years should give all of us serious pause for thought," the charity's chief executive Chris Askew was quoted as saying by the media.

UK's obesity problem is a cause for concern as UK was recently declared the most obese country in western Europe.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 26.9 percent of the UK population has a body mass index of 30 and above, considered obese, in 2015.

“One could weep over the figures, the result of successive governments who have, for the last 30 years, done next to nothing to tackle obesity," Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, was quoted as saying by the media.

“Even today, we have only a pathetic attempt by Theresa May’s administration to get serious about reducing the numbers and avoiding an official estimate that more than 50 percent of the UK will be obese by 2050. Ten years ago, a government department report stated that the nation was sleepwalking into obesity – but no minister, either then or since, has woken up to the fact.”