The disease that affects a million people in Portugal but 30% do not know they have it
Bringing the topic of diabetes to Health Conversations is almost a must. The world day, marked on the 14th of this month, only served as a hook for us to challenge the doctor João Jácome de Castro, president of the Portuguese society of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, to take stock of the disease. But a real reason lies in the Portuguese welcomed and, even more so, in those welcomed who are unaware of their condition.
The expert begins by asserting that between 10 and 14% of the adult population has diabetes (only 5% concerns type 1, an autoimmune disease). Of those around one million, 30% live as if they didn’t suffer from this illness, due to the absence of a diagnosis. These numbers have touched Europe on the tail.
It is here that it is urgent to act, “to prevent complications from arising at a distance”. For this, the expert calls for extended screening programs to catch these people in time, especially in pre-diabetes situations. “If we do nothing, about half of these cases will progress to diabetes”, notes the endocrinologist.
And then there are the groups that should be researched, such as women who have had gestational diabetes, people over 40 who are overweight, who have a family history or risk factors such as hypertension or high cholesterol.
If overweight, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are factors that can lead to diabetes, it is legitimate to question whether lifestyle changes will reverse the disease without resorting to medication. João Jácome de Castro answers that “yes”, with weight loss, but the answer lacks much framework, because not all cases will have this happened and the intervention has to occur even at the beginning of the disease. But the truth is that treatments have continued a lot in recent years and for this very reason should not be discarded without justification.
If not properly treated, diabetes can lead to complications, it has been said. The most worrisome are cardiovascular diseases (myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, cardiac arrest, for example), cerebrovascular diseases (mainly stroke, which in Portugal is the leading cause of death), kidney disease, blindness, amputation (the vast majority of lower limb amputations are responsible for this disease). Faced with this range of possible outcomes, it is best to prevent.