Rising diabetes in youth in Urban India cause of concern

Chandigarh, Nov 18 (UNI) Almost one-third of the total diabetics in urban India are below the age of 40, causing alarm among medical experts regarding the health prospects of the ''young India.'' The young people must shun the growing tendency to be a ''couch potato'' and discard the idiot box and computer screens as their playmates, stressed Dr Vinay Verma, senior physician with Alchemist Hospital, Panchkula, at a seminar held here yesterday on World Diabetes Day to stress the gravity of the disease.

He cautioned youngsters that lack of excercise, junk food and obesity at young age formed the base for a ''unhealthy'' way of life, and combined with sedentary job, increased intake of alcohol, high blood pressure and increased cholesterol levels of an adult urban life-style, people were bound to fall prey to this and other 'life-style borne'' diseases, he warned.

He urged students to take part in outdoor activities to improve lifestyle and habits to curtail the chances of inviting diabetic problem, informing that ''an alarming 12 per cent of population of Indian metros is diabetics while 14 per cent more are in pre diabetic stage.

At least 30 per cent were less than 40 years of age while even people in their 30s were increasingly coming to physicians especially ones with family history,'' he said.

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