Diabetes on the rise: “One in 4 adults at risk of developing diabetes by age 75”

Diabetes affects 4.2 million patients in France, and it is constantly increasing. Occitanie, with 200,000 people affected, is one of the regions with the highest prevalence. In this complex disease, we distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which are linked to different mechanisms, but one thing is common, an increase in blood sugar levels.

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Type 2 diabetes affects 90% of patients compared to 10% of type 1 diabetes. And we keep in mind that type 2 is a “disease of maturity”, linked to our sedentary lifestyle, which occurs between the ages of 40 and 50. “It’s more complicated than that,” explains Professor Hélène Hanare, head of the diabetology department at Toulouse University Hospital Center (CHU). Type 2 is easily associated with hypertension, certain liver diseases, lack of physical exercise, and obesity, but all obese people (18% of the population, editor’s note) are diabetic. There is also a genetic and multigenic component that plays a role in triggering it.”

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Cases of diabetes 2 in young adults

Of concern to caregivers is that type 2 diabetes is starting earlier and earlier and is increasing by 5% per year. “We are now seeing cases of diabetes beginning in adulthood, between the ages of 2 and 20. With life expectancy increasing, it is estimated that by the age of 75 it is one in four adults who are at risk of developing diabetes.

In type 1 diabetics, autoimmune disease is the cause and causes the body to mistakenly destroy insulin cells. A fact that occurs in two-thirds of cases before the age of 35. “Even here we see that the disease grows by 5% per year and most of all it appears in children, before the age of ten years and before, without us knowing very well why,” points out Professor Hanare. .

Promote access to prevention and treatment

One of the major challenges facing this disease is risk identification and prevention. “We know very well how to identify people at risk of developing diabetes based on their medical and family history, so we need to screen them better,” the diabetologist believes. “Similarly, we undoubtedly need to improve prevention messages, because multiple strategies, including eating better and being less sedentary, can significantly reduce the risk of developing diabetes within 10 or 15 years.”

From the patients’ point of view, progress is also needed in terms of access to support and treatment. “The therapeutic education needed by patients remains highly concentrated in hospitals, and is not easily accessible to patients living in more rural areas such as Arriage, Aveyron or Gers”, argues Claude Dykes, president of the French Association of Diabetics (AFD). Occitani.

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Devices that make everyday life easier

The good news comes from the rapid development of treatments and medical devices that ease patients’ daily lives. For example, continuous glucose measurement systems using patches are now being reimbursed on insulin for type 1 and 2 diabetics. This hybrid is also progressing to a closed loop that allows continuous monitoring of the glycemic index, compensating for type 1 diabetes. Last year only one device existed, today there are five.

“The loop takes a lot of the mental load off me, even if I have to always look forward to my meals or my sports sessions,” says Bernard, a type 1 diabetic and AFD member since the age of 22. . His regrets? “That this is still far less accessible to patients due to lack of information and very limited reimbursement.”