"Diabetes kills more people than all cancers and AIDS together"

Enrique Caballero, an endocrinologist and international expert in diabetes, has been in Malaga to offer a talk to doctors.

In an interview granted to South, he affirms that "diabetes kills more people than all cancers and AIDS together."Dr. Caballero, who works in a Boston center that depends on Harvard University, is committed to good nutrition and physical exercise as elements to be healthier.

- What do you do fundamentally in addition to carrying a research task?

–My work is to raise awareness about the problem of diabetes in different parts of the world, because there is every time there is a higher prevalence of type 2 or adult diabetes.In most health systems, including that of Spain, 70-80 percent of all money in the diabetes area is spent on the complications caused by the disease.That is, we are using money to deal with the consequences of the problem and not for the problem itself.

- What recommendations do doctors in the talks offered in different countries?

- I bet on making an early detection and an early intervention of patients with type 2 diabetes to achieve better control and thus reduce the risk of complications.That would be a way to help health systems a lot to, on the one hand, reduce costs and, on the other, improve the quality of life of people with diabetes.It is necessary to create an awareness about the timely and adequate management of patients to achieve good control of diabetes and associated pathologies.

- What is in your opinion the main problem to deal with the great world epidemic that diabetes supposes?

–The big problem is that most patients do not reach treatment goals.In the United States, for example, only one in five diabetics achieves good control of diabetes, arterial hypertension and cholesterol, which are three common aspects in that type of patients.It is what is known as metabolic syndrome.You have to improve a lot for people with diabetes to control their disease.Therefore, I think you have to discuss and analyze which are the best strategies to achieve that.

- Patients really aware that their metabolic disorder should be better controlled?

- To achieve this control you have to apply changes in the lifestyle, carry a good and healthy food, exercise regularly and use medications.Now, fortunately, there is a wide variety of medications that can be used both in type 1 diabetes and type 2.

- The so -called fast food and sedentary lifestyle are great allies for diabetes to spread like a gunpowder, right?

- That is one of the main problems both in Spain and in the world.Our diet is not adequate;There is an increase in calories that are consumed every year.In addition, less and less exercise is done.We are slowly killing ourselves through an inappropriate lifestyle.You have to raise awareness in the population so that there is a better diabetes prevention.

- I suppose that it is important that awareness and prevention are applied in the school environment to reduce childhood obesity and thus the future decreases type 2 diabetes.

-That's how it is.This awareness work must be carried out.For that, it is important to work with children in an early stages to exercise daily and feed well.

"I hope that the next decades there is healing"
Dr. Caballero explains that it is working to discover the cure of diabetes, but there is still no alternative for type 1 diabetes or for type 2. «I hope that at some point, in the coming decades, you canAchieve healing.However, there are very options to control diabetes through a combination of food, medicines and physical exercise, ”said Dr. Caballero.This expert added that there are many centers that develop lines of research to achieve an important improvement to be able to stop diabetes in the future.
- Doctors have enough information to advise and train the population in diabetes prevention, cholesterol, hypertension and obesity?

- Yes, because with very common diseases there are always opportunities to improve knowledge and make a more effective prevention among the population.People hear the word cancer and pay close attention, listen to the word AIDS and scare, but few know that diabetes kills more people than all cancers and AIDS together.It is important to raise awareness in the population of the need to prevent and properly treat the disease.

- Can the so -called adult diabetes be prevented?

–The good news is that type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed.I have been co -investigator in the United States of the National Diabetes Prevention Program, in which we show that if someone loses 10 percent of their body weight, and that person has prediabetes, that is, that their sugar figures are beginning to rise58 percent decreases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

- However, the majority of the population does not burn fat and falls into the arms of sedentary lifestyle.

- Exercise must be practiced regularly.It is recommended to do half an hour of exercise at least five times a week.That together with adequate food both in quantity and quality.The big problem is that more calories are consumed than necessary.The Mediterranean diet is still a great option.The amount of refined carbohydrates must be limited.

- Does the Mediterranean diet in the United States?

- Disfortunately, it is not the most frequent.In the United States, the consequences of fast food are being suffered, which is very present in the population.