Urbanised lifestyle a ticking time bomb

Today's urbanised lifestyle, especially in the Gulf region, is like a ticking time bomb, according to a top WHO official here.

Dr Ibrahim M. Abdel Rahim, the WHO Representative in Oman, told Gulf News yesterday: "Nowadays people spend most of their time behind wheels, in front of television and computers and that's unhealthy. I will say television is the biggest villain." The TV watching habit leads to lack of physical activities, he added.

The oil boom has fuelled a dramatic change in the lifestyle of people in the Gulf. He reckons that chips and the fastfood culture is also harmful as it causes obesity and eventually leads to diabetes.

"Look at the way people live here. Even to go round the corner they use automobiles. Non-communicable diseases, including traffic accidents are the biggest killer in the region," he said.

Road rage, according to Dr Ibrahim, adds tension to our already stressful life and that leads to hypertension and diabetes. Thus diabetes is continuously on the rise worldwide, according to a WHO study.

Without primary prevention, the diabetes epidemic will continue to grow. Even worse, diabetes is projected to become one of the world's main disablers and killers within the next 25 years.

Immediate action is needed to stem the tide of diabetes and to introduce cost-effective treatment strategies to reverse this trend.

An estimated 30 million people worldwide had diabetes in 1985. By 1995, this number shot up to 135 million. The latest WHO estimate (for the number of people with diabetes, worldwide, in 2000) is 177 million. This will increase to at least 300 million by 2025.

In Oman, Dr Ibrahim said an estimated 10 per cent of the population suffers from diabetes. According to the WHO estimates, in the next 25 years the number of diabetic patients in Oman could more than double. "By 2025, the rate of diabetic patients could cross 21 per cent mark."

Dr Ibrahim said the WHO and the health officials in Oman were working together to create awareness about diabetes and its dangers.

"We have one project in Nizwa where we are trying to get the community members to take part in our efforts to lower the risk of getting diabetes."

He said it is costly to manage diabetes and it also affects the productivity of a person, which, he added, no country in the world can afford. He also warned that cancer was another non-communicable disease that can prove to be a big killer in future.

"At present Oman's population is young, hence cancer won't appear a threat but people should remember that smoking is the biggest enemy and can cause cancer," cautioned Dr Ibrahim.