Diabetes has no cure, but can  only be avoided and controlled effectively by means of spreading awareness about the bad affects of sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy food habits and importance of physical activity in our day to day life, says Dr. Prasun Deb, senior consultant and endocrinologists at Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad in an exclusive interaction with Pharmabiz.

With more than 15 million Indians suffering from diabetes in 2010 and this number expected to touch 86 million by 2020 in India, this stealthy disease, creeping underneath with no major symptoms until it reaches its peak stage, has become a major killer.

According to Dr Deb, the drastic lifestyle changes during the past 2 decades have led India to become the global diabetic capital with more than half of its population diabetic and majority of them even do not know that they are diabetic. "Diabetes is a lifestyle disease and it does not exhibit early symptoms. However in western world, any person who reaches 45 years of age is considered to be more prone to have diabetes, while in case of India, this underlying disease is said to have affected people at a much younger age of 30-35 years," says Dr. Deb.

While explaining about the major causes of diabetes, apart from food habits and sedentary lifestyle,  Indians are considered  notorious when it comes to performing regular physical exercise. High anxiety, increased emotional pressure, eating processed food and even in some cases, the hereditary and inherent genetic disorders are also causes of diabetes.

The diabetes disease is categorised into two types, one is normal diabetes which is caused due to increased fat around the tummy areas which is a typical form of disease observed in most of the South East Asian countries. This kind of diabetes if not screened early can impact on the functioning of Kidneys and eyes and it even leads to high blood pressure.

The second form of diabetes is type-2 diabetes. This is a more complicated disease and has a direct impact on the cardiovascular and brain functioning in the body.

Commenting on the different possible treatments available for controlling the diabetes, Dr Deb said that before 4 years ago treating diabetes was a tedious task as the doctors were unaware that treating sugar will also cure heart disease and even the number of molecules available were very less. However, new research has found new medical procedures and of late the pharmaceutical companies have also developed 3-4 effective molecules which can be used to effectively control sugar as well as put a check on the heart disease.

In patients who are suffering with severe obesity and diabetes, the best option suggested is bariatric surgery, however this treatment is very costly and it is not suggestable to the non-obese diabetic patients.

The cost of treating diabetes depends on case to case basis. Though many pharma companies have launched new molecules but they are expensive. However, with Indian government implementing effective drug price control regulations most of the diabetes drugs are available at affordable prices.

"Having said all this, I would only say prevention is better than cure. If a patient wants to get his diabetes under control, he must quit habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, reduce weight and stick to regular physical exercise," says Prasun Deb.

Another Professor Andre Scheen, Head Division of Diabetes, nutrition and metabolic disorders at Academic Hospital in Belgium says that diabetes is an economic disease. With rising in income levels, people are more prone to eat processed food and reduce physical activity. As diabetes has no symptoms until it reaches its extreme stage, people must be cautious and need to undergo regular screening and must put a check on their body weight.