High Blood Sugar: a Silent Killer

In today’s modern world we have developed vaccines and medicines for various bacterial and viral diseases. The other form of diseases, which are very much prevalent are lifestyle-related diseases. Diabetes, cancer etc are major diseases caused majorly because of an unhealthy lifestyle. In the previous article, we read about oral, cervical, and breast cancer. In this article, we will have a look at blood sugar levels in India.

Not necessarily every high blood sugar reading indicates diabetes, but continuous high blood sugar indicates an unhealthy lifestyle, stress, lack of exercise etc. Continuously having high blood sugar may lead to diabetes. As per World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar. Hyperglycaemia, or raised blood sugar, is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and over time leads to serious damage to many of the body's systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels. Today, diabetes has become a very common disease in India.

Also Read: Nuclear Energy- Neglected Green Source of Energy #1

As per WHO, “In India, there are estimated 77 million people above the age of 18 years who are suffering from diabetes (type 2) and nearly 25 million are prediabetics (at a higher risk of developing diabetes in near future). More than 50% of people are unaware of their diabetic status which leads to health complications if not detected and treated early.

In NFHS 5, the percentage of men and women with high and very blood sugar levels is measured. This data is also available in the state and district categories, but for this article, we will look at only two district-wise maps of men and women with very high (>160 mg/dl) blood sugar levels.

Also Read: Condition of Sex Ratio in India

As the map shows, the darker colour is towards the south of the nation. The maximum number of districts lies between 3- 9% of the men population with very high blood sugar. It is very difficult to establish the correlation between sugar level and any other parameter because there could be an ‘n’ number of reasons for this outcome.

Also Read: I ndia’s Grains Story

Similar distribution can also be seen in the case of women with very high blood sugar levels. The number of districts with a high percentage of women with very high blood sugar levels is in the southern part of the country, especially in the Coromandel region of India. Unfortunately, data for various districts is not available.

We need to get more aware about sugar level. Diabetes causes various other medical complications, but it is preventable. Regular exercise, diet, stress management etc. can help to prevent the rising sugar level in the blood.