Nearly 600,000 people in Puerto Rico suffer from diabetes, the third cause of death during the past three decades on the Caribbean island and a disease for whose attention there are not enough doctors.
This was pointed to Efe today by the Executive Director of the Center for Research, Education and Medical Services for Diabetes (CDPR) in Puerto Rico, Ramón Alejandro Pabón, who argued that the cases of this condition, known as "the silent disease," havegone on the rise since 2010.
"If we are not going to better food and we do not make checks on time the diabetes rate will continue to increase," Pabón said.
Diabetes stands as the third cause of death in Puerto Rico after heart disease and cancer.Obesity and overweight, which are quite related to diabetes, are among the first five causes of death on the island.
The percentage of overweight or obese Puerto Ricans is approaching two thirds of the 3.5 million people living on the island, above 63 % of Americans suffering from this problem.
Most of these people suffer from diabetes due to poor diet and lack of physical exercise, according to health professionals.
To control the risks of diabetes, doctors have repeated that in addition to medical analysis, patients should have a healthy lifestyle, good food and physical activity practice, in addition to quitting and controlling hypertension and cholesterol.
Some signs of diabetes are the need to urinate frequently, thirst and constant appetite, while overweight is caused by hypertension, high cholesterol and history of cardiovascular diseases.
According to Pabón, 10 % of the adult population in Puerto Rico suffers from type 1 diabetes, but only ten endocrinologists doctors exist on the island to attend them, which causes patients to be treated between six months and one year.
As part of a plan to reduce the diabetes rate on the island, the CDPR joined in the "House fact ... healthy and family" campaign with the food, industry and food distribution chamber (MIDA),That he hopes to impact a million people.
According to the American Diabetes Association, about 29.1 million people or 9.3 % of the population in the US suffer diabetes, although in Puerto Rico the prevalence is almost double, of 14.9 %.
The agency estimates that approximately 4,600 people are diagnosed daily with diabetes and that around 1.7 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people over 20 in 2012 in the US.