• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Horrendous health in China

C

Cowboyjim

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,294
http://www.medilexicon.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=251427

There are 92 million with type 2 diabetes in China. In the urban population, levels of diabetes increased by more than 50% over a 5-year period, from 6% in 2002 to nearly 10% in 2007. Hospital admission rates for acute complications of diabetes are extremely high, and were reported at 160 per 100,000 in 2008. This is more than 16 times the rate in the Netherlands of less than 10 per 100,000 in 2005. Professor Hu said: "The numbers are big and the control is low."

That is bad enough but this really takes the biccy... "Smoking is a massive problem in Chinese men - 54% of men smoke. "Half of male physicians are smokers and one-third of Chinese male cardiologists are smokers, so it's a real problem," said Professor Hu.

The report also goes on about obesity but tho it says they should cut down the salt I could not see mention of food intake.
 
Surely this is a reflection of an increasingly Western Diet. In come McDonalds and out goes traditional healthy high fibre food. Diabetes (t2), heart deasease etc. are all the results of economic prosperity, in short they are Western deseases.
 
One of the reason of having diabetes is because of Hereditary also.
Click to expand...

That is true, but it could be that the usual Chinese diet has been low enough in carbs and sugars and transfats to avoid complications and high blood sugars, so the latent diabetes hasnt appeared.

Now the traditional foods are being replaced by others, this is triggering the hidden genetic re-disposition in diabetics.

I also think this is a contributing factor in the increase in diabetes over here in the uk. The foods we used to eat, plus a shorter lifespan, hid many potential diabetics.

Given the large proportion of people, all around the world, who eat the modern diet and do not become Diabetic, I think there must be a genetic component, without which people do not become diabetic regardless of how many sugars and carbs etc they eat.
 
lucylocket61 said:
One of the reason of having diabetes is because of Hereditary also.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

That is true, but it could be that the usual Chinese diet has been low enough in carbs and sugars and transfats to avoid complications and high blood sugars, so the latent diabetes hasnt appeared.
quote]

This is true in part with the exception of the carbs argument. The chinese diet has crucially been very low in animal protein and very high in fibre, both of which help with protect the population. They have always had a high carbohydrate diet full of rice.

Simply put, the Chinese used to (and still do in rural areas) have a diet low in fat, high in fibre and low in animal protein and that was extremely helpful in preventing many Western diseases. Carbs have virtually ntohing to do with it, they weren't eating doughnuts and pastries afterall.

I can see why avoiding carbs once you have T2 is a good idea but let's be clear that complex low GI carbs are a healthy part of any diet and are not the reason people have become T2.

I would like to see people's evidence for T2 being genetic, i have not seen any such evidence but of course this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I know that in some cases it does seem to be random but in the vast majoirty of cases i think it is pretty clear it is lifestyle induced and that should be admitted. The proof can be found in obese children with very poor diets developing diabetes at an earlier age than ever seen. The fact that incidence is very low in China until recently suggests that it is not genetic. In fact studies have shown that when people of Chinese origin go to Western societies and eat Western style diets they develop the conditions we see in the West even though family members and people from the same region do not.

This isn't to start a flame of T2s at all but i think in order to tackle the epidemic of T2 it doesn't serve us to believe there is nothing that can be done.
 
Ericlewis said:
One of the reason of having diabetes is because of Hereditary also.
Click to expand...

T1 may be and in some cases T2 is, i have heard healthy people do contract it, but in most cases it does seem to be clearly linked to a poor lifestyle, something the Chinese are starting to adopt much more heavily.

See that was more simple than my other post :?
 
People in China who were born during the famine in the 1950s and 1960s are more likely to develop diabetes than those born just before or just after. China is not the only country a similar thing seems to have happened in, this rise has been seen in similar circumstances in India and also following the Dutch hunger winter.
One cause could be a lack of specific nutrients. There is also a theory that fetal malnutrition can cause changes to the DNA. These would enable the foetus to survive in an environment where food is scarce but If the person is subsequently exposed to a relatively high calorie, sedentary lifestyle they are more likely to develop the metabolic syndrome/diabetes.
This could be because of changes to the DNA in utero ie the development of a thrify genotype (rather than a thrifty gene: see the Nature article, on India where it explains the theory in simple terms)
A fetus growing in a malnourished mother will need to grab all the glucose it can for its development. It does this by making its muscles resistant to insulin; since insulin is responsible for allowing fat and muscles to store sugar, insulin resistance forces the sugar to circulate in the blood instead. But when food is freely available, this inability to store glucose can send blood sugar levels soaring and trigger the onset of type 2 diabete
Click to expand...
***

Adults born in famine show higher pre-diabetes risk
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/ ... KS20100722

*** Nature article about India;easy to read Epigenetics and lifestyle are conspiring to inflict a massive epidemic of type 2 diabetes in the subcontinent
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 5S14a.html

2011 academic paper
Exposure to the Chinese Famine in Early Life and the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Adulthood (this one's a 2011 academic paper
http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handl ... sequence=1
 
It tried to watch the full thing on You Tube:
I know I can't watch anything on BBC iplayer.
sadly:
This video contains content from BBC Worldwide, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.
Sorry about that.
Click to expand...
If I don't manage to watch a UK program at the time(shh I shouldn't do that) I can't watch it on computer. :(
 
A traditional Chinese diet based on rice or noodles is high in carbs. Perhaps increased wealth has led to increased portions. Still we can't really extrapolate if we haven't been there and seen
Hana
 
phoenix said:
It tried to watch the full thing on You Tube:
I know I can't watch anything on BBC iplayer.
sadly:
This video contains content from BBC Worldwide, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.
Sorry about that.
Click to expand...
If I don't manage to watch a UK program at the time(shh I shouldn't do that) I can't watch it on computer. :(
Click to expand...

Oops - didn't realise it was an official BBC video.

You may be interested in some of the articles on the first link to the BBC website (I can see you love a good article!)?
 
Our ABC had a segment on the program Foreign Correspondent a while back and it covered Mexico, Brazil (from memory, it could have been another South American country), China and India about the inroads junk and processed food companies are making in those countries and the rise in obsesity and diabetes as a result.

One of the more interesting things mentioned was the different Western highly processed oil sources (and trans fats) in the processed foods/deep frying could be making - the traditional oils used in those countries were very different.
 
Go back 10, 15 years or more and most Chinese got around on bikes or walked and ate fish and green vegetables. Now everyone has a car and eats pizzas, fries and cola. Horrendous health in China? Absolutely!
 
Tis a cruel form of culture shock... the price they are paying for inviting all the western factories et al over there. Those in the towns likely fare worse because they are more exposed to western camp followers such as junk food emporia and of course the affluence and perhaps less exercise... that comes later once the fad catches on.
Interesting that it is not the trad Chinese diet then... lots of carbs in rice etc? Maybe more than half the population has no access to the "western" lifestyle even now and lives on a frugal diet with lots of exercise... so they should be DM free for a while longer... 8)
 
Cardiovascular disease is on the increase in China in both urban and rural areas.
The reasons given are a Westernised Diet, Smoking and a Rapidly Ageing Population.
http://visualization.geblogs.com/visual ... arthealth/

This article suggests that children and teenagers in China have a rate of diabetes nearly 4 times greater than the USA.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 194138.htm

Their traditional diets, which included carbs, have given way to Westernised diets including fast foods.
 
25 years ago there was practically no type 2 diabetes in China. Now, estimates are 92 million have it and 150 million are in pre-diabetes. What's changed? Chinese have become more affluent and they are driving cars and fewer walk or ride bikes. They are now buying much more red meat and sweets, which were far and few between in the past. But, Chinese are eating more wheat and more rice and more sugar than ever before. Wheat is the highest glycemic food commonly eaten world wide now. This is not your grandma's wheat or even your mother's wheat, you guesssed it, GMO wheat. Glycemic index of sugar is 59, glycemic index of wheat flour is 72. Two pieces of whole wheat bread will send your blood sugar higher than 2 tablespoons of white table sugar. Obesity and type 2 diabetes rates follow wheat consumption. India has estimated 50 million type2s and 100 million in pre-diabetes. 70% of type 2s have cardiovascular disease and the other 30% are yet to be diagnosed. China and India now have more diabetes and heart disease than the rest of the world combined. 60% of Chinese diabetics have no healthcare.
We don't need nuclear weapons, just send them our food, that should do it...
 
Back
Top