"There are more and more teenagers with diabetes"

A Basque group elaborates the first guide for the management of the pathology that will be applied in Spain.

A team of Basque specialists led by the endocrinologist Alfredo Yoldi, from the Donostia Hospital of San Sebastián, has written the first guide of Spain for the diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes, which is the most widespread among the population.Which suffers 90% of those affected.The document, emerged by the Interterritorial Health Council, was presented yesterday at the National Congress of the Specialty, which is held these days at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao.

-Why does this type guide?
-It is interesting that all doctors act in the same way.

-How did each one go to their air?
-In medicine there is a tradition of treating the patient according to each one's experience.We want to practice a medicine based on scientific data.

-Is diabetes very serious?
-Depending on age, it affects up to 10% of the population and the worst thing is that half of those affected ignore it.

-The half?
-Yeah.In addition, being diabetic entails greater possibility of cardiovascular problems, between three and five times more than the general population.The risk of getting sick and death are also high.

-Why do they say that in a few years the cases will be doubled?
-The obesity favors its appearance and in our society there are more and more obese people.That, together with a sedentary lifestyle and a less healthy food, of fast food type, is causing an increase in diabetes.

-How can I know that I am?
-In the type 2 diabetes mellitus weigh the family history.Having parents, grandparents or brothers with diabetes should alert the doctor who is facing a risk person.The symptoms are thirst, urinating too much, weight loss.The problem is that, many times, it is asymptomatic.

-Can you prevent a pathology with such a hereditary load?
-Yes, because lifestyle is fundamental.Small modifications on him, such as walking 30 minutes on alternate days, it has been proven that they are very effective measures.We can also take care of food.Let's avoid very elaborate foods, refined, with fats, sweets.You have to return to traditional food.

-If its causes are ignored, how do we know that all works?
-There are studies done in risk populations and it has been proven that a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet decreases the risk by half.

educate the patient

-Is the Council for Children and Adolescents the same, diet and exercise?
-In children and adolescents the normal thing is usually the appearance of type 1 diabetes. However, the increase in childhood obesity is making us see more and more cases of adolescents with insulin resistance, hyperglycemia crisis;and the age at which type 2 diabetes is diagnosed is descending.

-What age does it usually appear?
-The classic was at 40.We are seeing it in boys from 15 to 20.

-A people diagnosed, can you never take a cake?
-The best advice we can give is to avoid sweets.Now, people treated with drugs, sometimes specific and under medical control, as something exceptional, can eat a sweet.Now, the general recommendation is to avoid them.

-Are the drugs available?
-The are for each of the stages of the disease and yes, they are.

-Will the pills therapy replace insulin injections?
-Of today, that is a utopian approach.In initial stages, oral treatment is very effective, but over the years the pancreas is exhausted and insulin becomes necessary.

-What expected gene therapy?
-We have many hopes deposited in it, because we believe it can be a solutionRadical for type 2 diabetes, but it is still starting.The patient wants fast solutions, but it is not always possible.

-Is it a fantasy to think of a vaccine that protects the pancreas?
-No, in type 1 diabetes, which has an autoimmunity component.For type 2 that approach would be ineffective.

-What message did you want to leave your colleagues by profession today?
-In Osakidetza we have been pioneers in patient education, in their training for a correct and compatible self -control with a good quality of life.It is fundamental and reduces the health cost to 70%.