THERE are now 3.4 million adult Filipinos with Type 2 diabetes, or 2 million more than the 1.4 million Filipinos aged 29 to 79 who had the disease in 2008.  Of the country’s total adult population of 51 million this year, 6.7 percent have the disease, up from 4 percent a year ago.

The figure is alarming because the number of diabetes sufferers more than doubled in one year, said Dr. Tommy Ty Willing, chairman and president of Diabetes Philippines, a nongovernment organization promoting awareness of the disease.

Willing said the figures were derived from the International Diabetes Federation’s “Diabetes Atlas 2009.”

In a media roundtable at the Metropolitan Hospital in Bambang, Manila, Willing said the disease adversely affects the financial capabilities of a family, even with just one member having the disease.

“Diabetes can produce a lot of health complications, aside from the fact that maintenance medication alone can cost a patient more than the minimum wage,” Willing told reporters. He calculated that for treatment of Type 2 diabetes alone, a patient can spend P60 a day.

“The amount may sound cheap, but once you have diabetes, it is almost certain that you will acquire other complications like hypertension, kidney disease, pneumonia, deteriorating eyesight, nerve problems, to name a few,” he said.

“For hypertension, you will spend P26 a day, then another P30 for cholesterol medication, plus P800 complete blood test every two to three months,” he said. “If you have kidney complications, you need to have your dialysis twice a week, which costs from as low as P2,000 to as high as P5,000 per dialysis. To sum it up, you could spend P4,086 [weekly] for diabetes maintenance as well as complications arising from the disease.”

Willing said that patients with kidney problems usually have diabetes.

“According to the study, in the past, if people in Asia have diabetes, the usual complication was hypertension and cholesterol.  Nowadays, people who are diabetic most likely have kidney diseases as well. There is still no exact study on the matter, but the disease is probably hereditary, from the genes,” he said.

Willing said that November 14 is the official World Diabetes Day.  He said his organization wants to highlight the disease through an information campaign to let people understand what diabetes is, its risk factors, and help them control or prevent the disease.

Angela Heidi Hayumpa, 21, who has Type-1 diabetes, is insulin-dependent.  She told the BusinessMirror that she usually spends P150 for tablets and needles and P530 for insulin in five days.

She considers herself lucky because one of her medicines comes free from her father’s office.

“I usually inject around my navel twice a day or every 12 hours,” she said.

Hayumpa was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes when she was 13.

For those with Type-1 diabetes, mostly insulin-dependent, 3.8 percent per 100,000 people aged 0 to 19 diagnosed with the disease usually have other family members with diabetes.

Diabetics are prone to viral infections like common colds, tonsilitis or skin problems that destroy the pancreas, said Willing.

“In most developing countries like the Philippines, the expenses of treating diabetes, pneumonia and other illnesses are not subsidized by the government,” Willing said.

He described a trend seen becoming fairly common in diabetes cases. “Now, even if your sugar count is normal and you do not have any history of the disease, you can still have the illness,” he said. “Although there are still not enough studies on the newly discovered factors of diabetes, the Impaired Glucose Tolerance [IGT] is another cause of diabetes.  Even if your blood-sugar level is normal [between 90 to 120], if you have IGT, there are more possibilities that you will contract the diseases, and suffer from heart attacks or stroke.”

He said that of the 51 million adult population in the country, 9.6 percent or 531,250 people have IGT and had acquired diabetes in the process.

Willing said that in 1998, they conducted a study on diabetes and other complications among 6,000 respondents in 13 regions.

In 2006, of the 13 regions surveyed in 1998, they had 3,000 respondents who tested normal in six regions: Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Cebu, Davao and Mindanao.  They found that 85 percent of 3,000 respondents who had normal blood sugar count in 1998 are now diabetic.

Type-1 diabetes or juvenile-onset diabetes is an autoimmune disease characterized by the destruction of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Consequently, people with Type-1 diabetes produce very little or no insulin and must take insulin to survive.

The pancrease of people with Type-2 diabetes cannot effectively produce insulin. They can often manage their condition through exercise and diet.

People who have diabetes may experience frequent urination, weight loss, lack of energy, itching, tingling in extremities, and excessive thirst.

Willing said diabetes can be acquired through heredity, lack of exercise, unhealthy diet and obesity.

In order to reduce the risk of diabetes, people should exercise like brisk walking, dancing, swimming or cycling.