By Christel Schaldemose - 8th December 2011
A healthy diet and exercise can prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes, says Christel Schaldemose.
Do you know anyone with diabetes? I do. And I know how disabling it can be and what a tremendous upheaval it can be to get diagnosed with the disease. World diabetes day is on 14 November and it cannot be stressed often enough how important it is to mark this day because millions of people feel the consequences of living with diabetes.
Many people are of the opinion that diabetes is a “mild” kind of disease. But that is far from the case. Diabetes is not like other health problems. It needs attention many times a day, every day. Unfortunately this is the everyday life of more than 32 million EU citizens – that is nine per cent of all citizens in the EU. Incidentally, most of them suffer from Type 2 diabetes which is strongly associated with obesity. It changes your life if you are diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetics have to be very careful of how they live if they don’t want to die or get struck by serious complications. Every year, diabetes is the cause of death of 325,000 EU citizens and cardiovascular disease, blindness and limb amputation are just some of the repercussions which the disease can harm. Indeed, it is not a mild malady. It must be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, the number of Europeans with diabetes, pre-diabetes and obesity is increasing rapidly. This fact will not only drastically decrease the quality of life for millions of people but it will also cost the European healthcare systems an increasing amount of money. In most EU member states, diabetes is responsible for more than 10 per cent of healthcare expenditure, equivalent to €77bn a year. The good thing about Type 2 diabetes is that it actually can be prevented by lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and exercise. One out of two people with diabetes is unaware of his or her condition and remains untreated. But to act on something requires knowledge and recognition. That is why it is so important to mark world diabetes day. Information and attention about the complications and prevention of diabetes is very much needed.
I am one of four co-chairs of the European parliament’s working group on diabetes and through this group my colleagues and I are trying to highlight the problems of diabetes as much as possible. It is not easy to achieve but we hope – and we are working hard – to get the commission to develop a diabetes strategy or policy framework. While waiting, we must ensure that as many people as possible know about diabetes. It is only through information that we can enable EU citizens to act on potential risks of getting diabetes. That is for the sake of both the life quality of the individual European citizen and for the community as a whole. Will you spread the word 14 November? I will. Happy world diabetes day.
Christel Schaldemose is co-chair of parliament's working group on diabetes
