Diabetes 'epidemic' causing avoidable and costly health risks, doctors warn John Pahos had always eaten well and exercised daily, so when he found out he had type 2 diabetes, it came as a surprise. "It was a bit of a shock because my lifestyle's reasonably good, so I thought if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody," he said. He did not have any noticeable symptoms and his diagnosis was detected by doctors at Melbourne's Austin Hospital as part of a program to reduce the disease. Research conducted through the program shows Mr Pahos is not alone. An average of 34 per cent of patients at the hospital had diabetes — and 5 per cent of those had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes which was only discovered as part of the study. It is estimated about 500,000 people across Australia may have the disease without knowing. "One of the wicked problems with type 2 diabetes is it's often silent," Diabetes Australia chief executive Greg Johnson said. "It's about time we firstly recognised just how serious the diabetes epidemic is and [how it is] overwhelming our hospitals and health services. And secondly, it's about time we did more to actually detect this problem earlier." Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects a person's blood sugar levels, which can in turn cause serious complications. It is the leading reason for people needing dialysis in Australia. The annual cost of diabetes in Australia is estimated to be $14.6 billion, which Professor Johnson could be reduced with early diagnosis. "People are developing complications, it's costing the country a fortune and it's having a terrible impact on the lives of thousands and thousands of people when a lot of this could be prevented," he said. Professor Johnson said people with diabetes were "frequent flyers" in Australian hospitals because of diabetes-related complications such as heart attacks, strokes and amputations.Community 'doesn't connect the dots' Despite there being about 1 million diabetes-related hospital admissions across Australia in the past year, the Austin Health research found 62 per cent of people aged 40 and above were not concerned about developing the disease. "We don't connect the dots. People — the community — doesn't connect the fact that diabetes is the underlying cause of so many serious complications," Professor Johnson said. Type 2 is linked to obesity and accounts for about 85 per cent of all diabetes cases, and the number of people living with the condition is growing each year. Aboriginal Australians are more likely to develop diabetes than non-Indigenous Australians. Elif Ekinci, director of Diabetes at Austin Health, said young and otherwise fit and healthy people were not immune. "It can affect people who feel they've had a really great lifestyle, who do a lot of exercise … it's a really serious condition that can affect anyone," she said. "There has a bit of a shift, that the age of onset of diabetes is coming on earlier. "If you get diabetes at a younger ag
Diabetes 'epidemic' causing avoidable and costly health risks, doctors warn John Pahos had always eaten well and exercised daily, so when he found out he had type 2 diabetes, it came as a surprise. "It was a bit of a shock because my lifestyle's reasonably good, so I thought if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody," he said. He did not have any noticeable symptoms and his diagnosis was detected by doctors at Melbourne's Austin Hospital as part of a program to reduce the disease. Research conducted through the program shows Mr Pahos is not alone. An average of 34 per cent of patients at the hospital had diabetes — and 5 per cent of those had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes which was only discovered as part of the study. It is estimated about 500,000 people across Australia may have the disease without knowing. "One of the wicked problems with type 2 diabetes is it's often silent," Diabetes Australia chief executive Greg Johnson said. "It's about time we firstly recognised just how serious the diabetes epidemic is and [how it is] overwhelming our hospitals and health services. And secondly, it's about time we did more to actually detect this problem earlier." Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects a person's blood sugar levels, which can in turn cause serious complications. It is the leading reason for people needing dialysis in Australia. The annual cost of diabetes in Australia is estimated to be $14.6 billion, which Professor Johnson could be reduced with early diagnosis. "People are developing complications, it's costing the country a fortune and it's having a terrible impact on the lives of thousands and thousands of people when a lot of this could be prevented," he said. Professor Johnson said people with diabetes were "frequent flyers" in Australian hospitals because of diabetes-related complications such as heart attacks, strokes and amputations.Community 'doesn't connect the dots' Despite there being about 1 million diabetes-related hospital admissions across Australia in the past year, the Austin Health research found 62 per cent of people aged 40 and above were not concerned about developing the disease. "We don't connect the dots. People — the community — doesn't connect the fact that diabetes is the underlying cause of so many serious complications," Professor Johnson said. Type 2 is linked to obesity and accounts for about 85 per cent of all diabetes cases, and the number of people living with the condition is growing each year. Aboriginal Australians are more likely to develop diabetes than non-Indigenous Australians. Elif Ekinci, director of Diabetes at Austin Health, said young and otherwise fit and healthy people were not immune. "It can affect people who feel they've had a really great lifestyle, who do a lot of exercise … it's a really serious condition that can affect anyone," she said. "There has a bit of a shift, that the age of onset of diabetes is coming on earlier. "If you get diabetes at a younger ag
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