Smoking habit may sky rocket diabetic projection in India

Mumbai, Jan 3 (UNI) Housing the second highest number of cigarette smokers in the world could lead to projections in the incidence of diabetes in india going haywire, an expert says.

In a shocking revelation chest specialist Dr Sanjay Mehta said here today that smoking can compound the plight of diabetics manyfold as it reduces significantly the production of insulins leading to severe complications.

Dr Mehta, a chest specialist at the Lilavati Hospital told newsmen that India had the dubious distinction of not only being the Global capital of diabetes but also the second largest number of smokers in the world.

''Diabetes is not caused by sweets, as most would tend to think; it is caused by the body's inability to process the sugars'' he added.

There were more than 35 million diabetics in India, many of whom were smokers and these diabetic smokers were unwittingly complicating their dreaded disease putting their lives to extreme risk'' he added.

According to him world over 1.3 billion were addicted to smoking worldwide with 74 million of them in India alone! The health burden of diabetes epidemic in India would become insurmountable if immediate action was not taken to help diabetics stop smoking.

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