Obesity

The urgent need to tackle obesity and prevent type 2 diabetes is now widely acknowledged, particularly by the health ministers worldwide who in May 2004 gave their unanimous approval to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Many health ministries around the world have policies to cope with these most pressing public health issues. But their detailed strategies are often unclear. Indeed, almost everywhere, national programmes to address obesity and diabetes are still under development.

In the oil-exporting Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the economic growth and development of the past three decades have been dramatic. This socio-economic progress has brought benefits to many people in the region, such as improved access to health care, education, and safe drinking water. However, economic development has set the scene for the

Editor-in-chief's editorial

Smoking among people with diabetes parallels that of the general population. However, compared to non-smokers with diabetes, people with diabetes who smoke have twice the risk of premature death. The risk of complications associated with tobacco use and diabetes in combination are nearly 14 times higher than the risk

Eating is a pleasant necessity for most of us. We eat our food, the gastro-intestinal tract (gut) directs nutrients to the blood stream, and excess energy is stored for later use. Much of what is known about the mechanisms that regulate these processes has been learned from diabetes research. Because diabetes has always been regarded as a disease of glucose metabolism, the research has been focussed on the intake and processing of glucose. Jacqueline Dekker looks at the role of fats (lipids) in the processes that give rise to diabetes-related risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Editor-in-chief's editorial

President's editorial

Until the discovery of insulin in the 1920’s, dietary modification offered the only means of reducing raised blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. Now a wide variety of sophisticated insulin regimes are available; and for people with Type 2 diabetes, there is a range of oral medication. However, there is increasing appreciation that appropriate food selection remains a cornerstone of diabetes management. While it is important to remember that the way in which

“For forty-eight hours after admission to the hospital the patient is kept on an ordinary diet, to determine the severity of his diabetes. Then he is starved, and no food allowed save whiskey and black coffee. The whiskey is given in the coffee: 1 ounce of whiskey every two hours, from 7am until 7pm. The whiskey is not an essential part of treatment; it merely furnishes a few calories and keeps the patient more comfortable while he is being starved.” Starvation (Allen) Treatment of Diabetes (1915).

After the discovery of insulin in the 1920´s, available insulin was from natural sources (animal pancreas) until human insulin was made available in the early 1980s. None of these insulins was ideal for injection under the skin. Now, new