The prevalence of diabetes is high and constantly on the rise with population growth, aging and increasing obesity driving rates up. Across the globe, 1 in 11 (425 million) people have the disease while 1 in 2 adults (212 million) remain undiagnosed, according to the International Diabetes Federation. Management of this disease remains a challenge as the success of current treatments depend on many factors, including patient compliance with therapy, lifestyle and nutritional habits and tolerance for side effects of certain medications. This global epidemic shows no signs of slowing down as the medical community scrambles to find new avenues to contain the disease.
Lifestyle and dietary changes can play a role in preventing the development of diabetes and its complications before they take hold and cause irreversible damage.
Once you have diabetes, it is difficult to stop its progression and once diabetic complications set in, they are usually irreversible. Diabetes itself is difficult to live with but “death from this disease tends to be from diabetic complications, such as heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease,” explains Dr. Michael Tsoukas, endocrinologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the McGill University Health Centre and at its Research Institute (RI-MUHC). Dr. Tsoukas is an investigator with the research team working on the study to examine the effect of dairy products in improving insulin resistance in people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
