doctors stress that type 2 diabetes can be prevented in 60% of cases

The Hospital of Talavera de la Reina today hosted the International Symposium on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases Prevention that, at the same time, has been an annual meeting of the "De-Plan" project on the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The coordinator of the "De-Plan" project and member of the Research Unit of La Paz Hospital (Madrid), Rafael Gabriel Sánchez, explained to journalists the benefits of the prevention program, patient detection and health intervention by modifying stylesof life and habits.

More than two hundred and fifty toilets in Spain (mostly in both Castillas and Madrid) have participated in this international meeting and discussed the experiences that are carried out to prevent type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The profile of a person with type 2 diabetes is a medium -sized man -the risk is triggered from 45 years -, obese, sedentary, smoker, with inappropriate dietary habits and who has little physical activity: less than 30 minutesof exercise a day.

In the case of women, from 55 years cases increase and are associated with abdominal obesity that is more frequent in women than in men, and occurs more in southern Europe.

It is expected that in 2025 60 million people from the European Union suffer from this disease that in Castilla-La Mancha is diagnosed in 120,000 people, which represents a prevalence of 5.6 percent.

Rafael Gabriel Sánchez explained that the instrument to detect people at risk is very simple: without analytics and answering eight questions is "easy" to detect people with high risk of developing the disease in the next ten years.

He has insisted that diabetes is one of the "most powerful" risk factors associated with coronary heart disease, cardiovascular brain diseases and renal failure.

"The benefit attributable to prevention is as much or greater than pharmacological treatment at this time and studies have shown that up to 60 percent of diabetes cases can be prevented," said Gabriel Sánchez.

In the European "De-Plan" project of early detection of the risk of type 2 diabetes, the health areas of Talavera de la Reina and Cuenca participate together with other areas of Castilla y León (Gredos, Aranda and Arévalo), Madrid and Catalonia.

For his part, the Secretary General of the SESCAM, José Antonio del Ama, has reiterated the commitment of the Board to the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

To the symposium-organized by the Management of Specialized Care and Primary Care of Talavera de la Reina and the Foundation of Castilla-La Mancha for diabetes-the European coordinator of the Diabetes Prevention Program, the Finn Finn Jaakko Tuomilehto, has also attended.EFE