UAE Heart Network leads Dubai's World Diabetes Day on Nov 27

The celebration will be highlighted with public activities and this year's focus will be primarily on "metabolic syndrome", a condition of insulin resistance in the body which causes obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This condition is considered the new epidemic of the world. UHN underlines that by 2015, half of the population will have some grade of insulin resistance.

The UHN is sponsoring a free testing on various health concerns around diabetes including cholesterol check on the said date at the Tunisia Court in Ibn Battuta Mall. Testing also includes body mass index, blood sugar and blood pressure, which will also be offered for free to UAE residents in partnership with LifeScan and Omron.

The link between insulin resistance, diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) has long been established in medical research however awareness is not established. UAE experts warned diabetes patients as well as non diabetics should closely monitor their blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or face a high risk of cardiovascular disease.

Diabetes as one of the leading causes of cardiovascular diseases poses high-risk to the UAE's 24 per cent of the population diagnosed with the condition. Reports have established that one out of five people in the UAE has diabetes and 96 per cent of them have progressed to type II diabetes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 180 million people worldwide have diabetes. This number is likely to more than double by 2030. WHO projects that deaths caused by diabetes will increase by more than 50 per cent in the next 10 years without urgent action. Most notably, diabetes deaths are projected to increase by over 80 per cent in upper-middle income countries between 2006 and 2015.

Meanwhile, the high-rate of obesity is also a serious concern in the UAE as it poses a major health risk to the development of diabetes. The UAE has recorded about 17 per cent of the UAE's younger population suffering from obesity, one of the highest in the region.

Analyses by the International Obesity Task Force, undertaken for the World Health Report and associated WHO Global Burden of Disease research, indicate that approximately 58 per cent of diabetes mellitus globally can be attributed to Body Mass Index above 21 kg/m2. However in western countries, around 90 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases are attributable to weight gain.

The term metabolic syndrome refers to a cluster of three or more heart disease risk factors, including abdominal obesity, low levels of HDL-C, increased levels of triglycerides (another type of fat found in the blood), raised blood pressure and raised blood glucose.

Dr. Saadi J. S. Al-Jadir, Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist, Fujairah Medical Region commented, "The risk among diabetic patients is very high when it comes to cardiovascular diseases. The need for effective treatment in CVD is more important for people with the metabolic syndrome as they are nearly twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease and their risk of heart attack and stroke is threefold."

Dr. Al-Jadir also mentioned that there should be further awareness among people with metabolic syndrome on how treatment studies in CVD increase health improvement. "Lowering LDL-C among diabetes patients is imperative, given the high rate of complications CVD imposes on the body. Residents should be made aware of significant discoveries in treating bad cholesterol."

Studies have shown that statin treatment in people with the metabolic syndrome can reduce cardiovascular risks. Statin treatment of rosuvastatin has been proved to lower LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C, or 'bad' cholesterol) and raise HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C, or 'good' cholesterol) significantly more than another commonly prescribed statins.

Another recent discovery showed that in combined medication of statin therapy, there is a 70 per cent reduction on bad cholesterol as well as 46 per cent reduction on risks of vascular inflammation. This study was tested among 465 patients in five different countries.

"The World Diabetes Day is an excellent opportunity to inform the people of new hopes to combat diabetes and CVD," noted Dr Al-Jadir.