Diabetes is on the rise, with over one million more sick in the last fifteen years in our country alone. The data emerge from the tenth edition of the Italian Diabetes & Obesity Barometer Report, presented in Rome recently.
Thanks to the contribution of Dr. Cesare Berra, Head of the Section for Metabolic Nephrology and Dialysis Diseases in Humanitas, we try to understand why diabetes is on the increase and what is new in treatment.
“The trend is on the rise, according to a predictive epidemiological study we can expect an even greater increase in the next 25 years.
In Italy, there are 4 million patients diagnosed with diabetes, but it is estimated that there is another million diagnosed with undiagnosed diabetes: these are diabetics who do not know they are diabetics and therefore do not treat the disease, exposing themselves to an increasing risk of complications.
Diabetes
Diabetes is characterized by the presence of excessive amounts of glucose (sugar) in the blood. This condition, known as hyperglycemia, can be caused by insufficient insulin production (a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels) or by its inadequate action.
There are two most well-known forms of diabetes: type 1 diabetes (with no insulin secretion) and type 2 diabetes, resulting from reduced sensitivity to insulin by the liver, muscle and adipose tissue and/or reduced insulin secretion by the pancreas.
What are the reasons for undiagnosed cases?
“Type 2 diabetes sometimes does not show signs and symptoms of its presence, so if you do not perform routine examinations frequently, it is not easy to detect it. For the diagnosis of diabetes, in fact, the blood glucose dose within a normal blood test is sufficient: a fasting blood glucose value >126 mg/dl confirmed on at least two different days is sufficient for the diagnosis of diabetes.
In other cases, there may be an underestimation of blood sugar values. The patient does the examinations, but does not rely on the doctor to interpret them, or a blood sugar value slightly above the norm is underestimated and does not lead to a specialist examination with a diabetes specialist.
Early diagnosis is essential, because it allows the disease to be treated at an early stage, preventing the characteristic complications of diabetes,” says Dr. Berra.
Treating Diabetes
“The latest clinical studies show that diabetes should be treated as well and as early as possible, even in elderly patients or patients with concomitant diseases. Managing the chronicity of diabetes, with the complications that the disease brings in the long run, is one of the great challenges of our time, with repercussions not only on the social aspect, but also on the national health system in economic and management terms,” explains Dr. Berra.
New drugs for personalized treatment
“From a therapeutic point of view, it is worth noting that in the last ten years more and more individualized drugs have become available, capable not only of lowering blood sugar levels, but also of intervening on those defects recognized as the cause of metabolic disease; in fact, it is a series of deficits in our organism that lead to hyperglycemia.
Although these drugs are more expensive than traditional medicines, they are more effective, have fewer side effects and help to reduce the risk of complications. They help to lose weight, for example, and are not at risk of leading to hypoglycemia, one of the complications of diabetes, a risk that is present in older generation drugs.
Humanitas is a leading center for the treatment of diabetes, also from a technological point of view. For patients with type 1 diabetes, we offer the best blood glucose monitoring technologies, which are increasingly reliable and less invasive. For the treatment of type 2 diabetes we have all the new drugs on the market and we are involved in research, with clinical studies aimed at identifying new drugs,” concludes Dr. Berra.
