Malaysia, as well as other Asia Pacific countries along with other emerging economic nations cannot be said to have achieved their target in controlling the worsening 'epidemic' of their population getting impaired glucose tolerance (a prediabetic condition) and finally full blown diabetes with all its complications of proteinuria leading to kidney failure, retinopathy progressing to blindness, diabetic skin disease, stroke and heart attack.
What needs to be urgently tackled is aggressive campaigning against unhealthy lifestyle and strict monitoring of parameters that are known to contribute to increased cardiometabolic risks coupled with aggressive therapy to lower the levels of cholesterol and keep blood pressure and blood glucose within the internationally accepted safe standards.
The new treatment paradigm is now in favour of treating the new emerging cardiac risks factors, in particular abdominal obesity, besides lowering blood pressure, LDL, Triglyserides,and certain (blood vessel) inflammatory markers.
As a fitting end to this series, our Honourable Health Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, himself a vegetarian and nutritionist by profession, is quoted in the Star yesterday, saying that the number of obese adults have risen to 50% among 13 million individuals. Though 10 to 15%, he said, is due to genetic predisposition, we all know that there is still a long battle to go for many people to keep themselves from bulging to dangerous proportions.
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