The story appears on

Page A10

November 18, 2020

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeNation

Alarm bells as diabetes snares more youngsters

Liu Jing stared at an exquisite tiramisu in a bakery for a long time before making up her mind to buy one.

But the 18-year-old girl had to pay the price for savoring this sweet and high-calorie dessert 鈥 jog half an hour.

Two years ago, Liu was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Even a piece of cake has become an extravagance for her, as she has to regulate her sugar intake to lower the risk of diabetes complications in the long run.

China has the largest number of diabetics worldwide, with more than 116 million people aged 20 to 79 years suffering from the disease, said Tong Xiaolin, an endocrinologist with Guang鈥檃nmen Hospital under the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, citing statistics from the International Diabetes Federation.

Doctors say more young people like Liu are being diagnosed with diabetes than ever before due to unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity.

When Liu was a senior high school student, she stood 165 centimeters tall and weighed 83 kilograms. The obese girl always felt thirsty, and was diagnosed with diabetes.

Liu has to wear an insulin pump on her waist to better control her blood sugar level. No place to conceal her device, she rarely fancies putting on dress outfits.

Zhang Qiumei, a Tianjin-based endocrinologist, recalled that most outpatients were over 50 years old in the 1990s, but now more youngsters are seen.

Rapid social and economic development in the past decades has led to a change in lifestyle, with more sedentary behavior and consumption of high energy and fat diet.

Doctors noted that obesity, unhealthy diet, excessive stress and chronic anxiety are among several risk factors causing diabetes and warned of increasing number of young diabetics.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend