World Diabetes Day has been celebrated since 1991 at the initiative of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO). Today, hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from diabetes, and the number is expected to multiply over the coming decades. According to the National Center for Health Information (NCZI) of the Slovak Republic, by the end of 2023, 338,056 patients were being monitored for some type of diabetes mellitus in the dispensary care of diabetes clinics.
The commemoration of this important phenomenon falls on November 14, on this day in 1891 Canadian physiologist and later Nobel laureate Frederick Grant Banting, considered the main discoverer of insulin, was born.
Diabetes Day should not just be a grumpy expression of the rapidly increasing incidence of diabetes on a global scale. It is also a celebration of progress in the field of transition and healing. The aim is to increase awareness of the disease, its diagnosis and treatment, enable better knowledge of this disease, improve care and especially promote better prevention. According to experts, diabetes is now a global epidemic with life-threatening complications.
In 2007, this day was celebrated for the first time as a world day under the official auspices of the United Nations (UN). In recognition of the seriousness of this disease, the General Assembly approved Resolution No. 20 on December 20, 2006. 61/225, which established the World Diabetes Day as a global day within the framework of the United Nations. The new dimension points to the fact that diabetes mellitus is considered a serious public health problem.
“Diabetes” November 14 is the anniversary of the birth of Frederick Grant Banting (1891-1941), who together with Charles Herbert Best (1899-1978) isolated clinically usable insulin from the pancreas in October 1921. In 1922, they tested the effectiveness of insulin on themselves and later administered it to a 14-year-old boy, whose life it saved. In 1923, Banting, together with the Scottish physiologist John James Ricardo MacLeod, won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin.
Therefore, World Diabetes Day is also a campaign that raises awareness of the disease, which manifests itself precisely by insufficient production of insulin. Specialists are alarming that the number of patients with diabetes is growing and will continue to increase, especially in connection with unhealthy lifestyles and the aging of the population. This is also why the label diabetes can be encountered quite often, although it is not a single disease. There are several diagnoses with significant differences.
All types of diabetes have a common basis – they are chronic metabolic diseases characterized by elevated blood sugar levels. A healthy body can handle high blood sugar without any problems. The pancreas begins to secrete the hormone insulin, which binds to glucose in the blood and helps it to be absorbed into the cells, where it is converted into energy. Complications occur if insulin production is not sufficient. Blood sugar levels remain high, leading to serious health problems. So diabetes may or may not be a hereditary disease.
Diabetes mellitus is divided into three main types. The first type is the so-called Insulin-dependent, which occurs more often in young people, is usually caused by an autoimmune reaction when the body’s defense system attacks the cells that produce insulin. People with type 1 diabetes produce very little or no insulin.
The disease can affect people of any age, but it usually develops in children or young adults. People with this form of diabetes need daily insulin injections to control their blood glucose levels, otherwise they would be at risk of severe acute complications.
The second type, the so-called independent of insulin, it occurs more often in older people, often obese patients. It accounts for 90% of all diabetes cases. It is characterized by insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency, while one or both of these phenomena may be present at the time of diabetes diagnosis. Type 2 diabetes can remain undetected for several years if the diagnosis is often made when complications occur or when a routine test for glucose in the blood or urine is performed.
It is often, but not always, associated with being overweight or obese, which itself can cause insulin resistance and lead to high blood glucose levels. People with type 2 diabetes can often control their condition with exercise and diet.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is directly related to lifestyle, and risk factors in addition to obesity include a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, and predisposition. A patient with diabetes is exposed to the risk that the disease may affect other organs as well. If diabetes is not treated, or is treated insufficiently, it can lead to damage to tissues, especially the eyes, peripheral nerves and blood vessels, kidney disorders, or the cardiovascular system. In case of vision damage, it can lead to blindness.
Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a form of diabetes in which blood glucose levels are high during pregnancy. It occurs in approximately one in 25 pregnancies and is associated with complications for both mother and child. GDM usually clears up after pregnancy, but women with GDM and their children are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. About half of women who have had GDM will develop type 2 diabetes within five to ten years after giving birth.
Last year, 7.7% of patients in Slovakia were treated for type 1 diabetes mellitus, most patients, up to 90.7%, were treated for type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes mellitus represented 0.9% of cases, 0.7% had other types patients.
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF, headquarters in Brussels) states that more than 50 percent of cases of type 2 diabetes can be prevented. The total number of people with diabetes is fast approaching 450 million, and the disease is responsible for 12% of global health care spending. The new motto of the three-year World Diabetes Day campaign is “Diabetes and well-being”. Goals for three spheres – physical prosperity, social well-being and mental well-being.
