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Diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is a group of disorders characterized by chronic hyperglycemia, It may cause no symptoms and therefore remain undetected for years; or symptoms ofCardiovascular Related Disorders thirst, polyuria, and weight loss may prompt testing for the disorder. All types of diabetes whether detected or not, cause acute and chronic complicatioils affecting many systems and resulting in severe morbidities and mortality.

Diabetes has a high prevalence in India. An estimated 13.3 per cent of adults above the age of 20 years in urban setting (National Urban Diabetic Survey conducted by Diabetes Epidemiology Study Group) are affected. The Diabetes Research Centre at Chennai found a rural prevalence of diabetes as 2.4 per cent in 1990, and the figure increased to 6.3 per cent in 2003.

Affluence and resultant sedentary lifestyles are responsible for increasing prevalence of obesity and diabetes. It is a major risk factor for ischemic heart disease for both men and women and is an import-ant cause of blindness and renal failure in this country. Research has shown that ineticulous control of the metabolic abnormality is effective in preventing the micro-vascular complications, and in reducing the risk for macro-vascular disease. It is therefore crucial that there is a drive for early detection of diabetes in the community, and thereafter, comprehensive care and follow-up lifelong.

These figures have prompted demographers to say that there is a ''pandemic'' or explosion of diabetes in South Asia. Not only is the prevalence rising, but the disease and it's complications are appearing earlier; since life expectancy has increased, this results in a large number of people in the older age groups with diabetes and other chronic diseases.

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