Global summit pledges ambitious action to prevent type 2 diabetes worldwide

Health leaders from around the world have pledged to prevent more than 100 million new type 2 diabetes cases by 2045.
Representatives from member cities of the Cities Changing Diabetes program have been meeting at a major summit in Housto, Texas to discuss how to best deal with the escalating problem.
A report, entitled Bending the Curve on Urban Diabetes, was issued at the meeting and laid out some of the costs which are currently being spent on diabetes-related complications annually. It has been estimated expenditure could increase from $775 billion to more than $1 trillion in 2045, if action is not taken to tackle the issue.
Complex environments such as prevention and management of type 2 diabetes.
The initiative, developed by Novo Nordisk, currently involves nine cities which Copenhage, Housto, Johannesburg, Mexico City, Romen, Shanghai, Tianji, Vancouver and Xiamen.
The summit has also been used to launch the Urban Diabetes Toolbox which provides member cities with the means to develop an action plan specific to their areas to help tackle the growing obesity and urban diabetes levels.
Lars Fruergaard Jørgense, Novo Nordisk’s president and chief executive officer, said: “The urban diabetes pandemic is playing out in every major city around the world and the stakes are high. We’re calling upon all city leaders and their healthcare counterparts to come together to meet this challenge head on.
“Now is the time to fully measure and understand the local burden of disease and to create local action plans that together can combine to bend the curve on global diabetes. That means taking ambitious action on the biggest modifiable risk factor for diabetes: obesity.”
Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner said: “Action against diabetes has to start in cities. The way cities are designed, built and run is fuelling an urban obesity and diabetes pandemic that is already shortening millions of people’s lives and resulting in billions in healthcare costs primarily related to the cost of treating complications.”
Editor’s note: While global health leaders debate the best way to reduce worldwide obesity and type 2 diabetes, users of our Low Carb Program have been able to lose weight and put their type 2 diabetes into remission by eating a healthy low-carb diet. The program has also helped prevent people with prediabetes from developing type 2 diabetes.