Diabetes is a chronic disease that is on the rise worldwide, but specific follow-up could not be done at the local level due to lack of information. Now that has changed, with the Ministry of Health publishing for the first time real data on the most frequently diagnosed type of the disease, type 2, which develops in adulthood because it is associated with aging and, in many cases, In, also for the habits of life. Thus, it is now possible to specify that at least 25,458 people from Burgos between the ages of 15 and 105 were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the end of December last year. That is, 7.3% of the population of Burgos.
This is somewhat less than in Castilla y León (180,050 diagnosed at the end of the year, which corresponds to 7.8% of the population), and it is still insufficient to assess in detail to what extent May be the effect of this disease caused by excess blood sugar as a result of insufficient or incorrect production of insulin in the health system of the province.
On the one hand, to this figure we must add those affected by type 1 pathology, which appears in childhood and is less frequent. On the other hand, because the data offered by Cecil is specific to those with public healthcare and does not include private healthcare, but, judging by the latest National Health Survey and other state-level reports, the prevalence among users of Cecil will be estimated. to the entire population. And finally, because it is known that there are many people who are sick and have not yet been diagnosed. “About 20%,” says José Herrero, doctor at Los Comuneros Health Center and vice president of the College of Physicians.
This doctor acknowledges that the statistics should be taken with some caution, as they may have limitations or biases that prevent them from being taken as a snapshot of reality and also compared to previous years to measure the increase in those affected. Huh. But, with regard to type 2 diabetes, it is clear that since it is associated with aging, an increase is inevitable. “Diabetes is actually a mix of diseases. Type 2 is caused by aging of the pancreas which causes excess sugar to be present either because of decreased insulin production or because it doesn’t function as it should,” They say, noting that it usually appears after 65 years.
However, this version is also associated with a sedentary lifestyle and lifestyle typical of industrialized countries. «And to this we have to add other factors such as social class and income as well as other genetic factors. [ver información adjunta abajo]» says the doctor.
Given this range of factors favoring an increase in insulin and dysregulation of sugar production in the body, primary care physicians have attempted to “fine tune” the diagnosis, no longer based on sampled timed blood glucose. level, but now other parameters have been included in the analysis which makes it possible to determine that sugar value three months before the analysis. And, thus, the cases in which ‘prediabetes’ was spoken of are directly reduced to the conclusion that one already has the disease. “It’s better diagnosed,” though, stressing the high percentage of people who are still unaware they have a disease and that it’s chronic.
Treatment essential. Diabetes is one of those diseases that is often underestimated. But this excess glucose “damages the blood vessels, which are everything” and, therefore, in addition to being associated with cardiovascular risk, it affects vision, kidneys, and peripheral circulation (this is the reason for amputations … ninai) and also in the nervous system.
“Diabetes is all control. If left untreated it has a mortality rate like cancer. But it seems that, sometimes, it is not given the importance,” concluded Herrero.
