Diabetes a ‘ticking bomb’

Complications from type two diabetes are a ‘ticking time bomb’, scientists have warned today.

Writing in the Lancet medical journal, researchers argue that as more young people are diagnosed with the disease there is an “urgent” need for greater understanding and management of its associated complications.

Problems resulting from the disease include high blood pressure and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Dr Orit Pinhas-Hamiel from the Israeli Sheba Medical Centre and Dr Philip Zietler from the University of Denver issued their warning after studying a range of reports on acute and long-term illness associated with type two diabetes in young people.

They found that complications are being identified at an early age and usually at the time of diagnosis. Some studies also suggested that early onset of type two diabetes in adolescents is associated with a more rapid progression of complications than type one diabetes.

Other reports found linked type two diabetes with depression and pregnancy complications.

“These findings, although still limited, suggest that we urgently need to develop approaches to awareness and early management of type two diabetes and associated abnormalities while designing long term studies to establish the value of early initiation of adjunctive treatments,” the researchers write.

“With the rise in prevalence of type two diabetes mellitus in adolescents, a rise in incidence of secondary co-morbidities – including hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, nephropathy and retinopathy – is anticipated.”

There are an estimated two million people with diabetes in the UK and up to another 750,000 people with the condition who do not know it.