China overtakes India as ‘Diabetes Capital'

China has overtaken India to wrest the title of the ‘Diabetes Capital of the World', going by the latest figures revealed by the 5th edition of Diabetes Atlas.

At 90.0 million, China today has the largest number of people with diabetes. India follows with about 61.3 million, and the third on the list is far behind – United States at 23.7 million.

These figures revealed by the Diabetes Atlas, an effort of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), in mid-November have once again stressed the rampant progress of the epidemic in a world that seems largely under-prepared to tackle the growing numbers.

The current figures are a huge variance from the statistics presented during the last edition of the Diabetes Atlas. In 2009, the fourth edition put India at the top of the list of nations with diabetics. At 50.7 million, India was the country with the highest number of people, and China followed with 42.3 million. However, things changed in 2010, when China produced results of a nation-wide study, pegging the country's diabetic population at 92.4 million.

The revised statistic was accepted, and further validated globally when the 5th edition arrived at a figure of 90 million people.

That is sad to hear - diabetes is truly a global problem, and it is growing. We need to find the best way to help as many people as possible - and a cure would certainly help with that.

So much for the argument that people in other parts of the world eat lots of rice with no ill effects.

Yes, this is VERY sad !!!
I don't think it is that simple : " don't eat rice and you won't have ill effects " ...folks from India, China have been eating this as their main stay for centuries ...what is changing, I think is their life style ...it looks more
" North American " ...not moving around !