Around 40% of Portuguese people with type 2 diabetes do not know they have the disease, because, according to endocrinologist Davide Carvalho, they usually have no symptoms and do not go to the doctor.
In an interview with the Lusa agency, as part of World Diabetes Day and about the book by British doctor Roy Taylor “A simple guide to reversing type 2 diabetes”, published in Portugal by Porto Editora, Davide Carvalho explained today that it is part of the analyzes routinely measure glucose.
“When we analyze, for example, the percentage of patients who are undiagnosed, on average, is around 40%, but, for example, between 30 and 40 years old it can reach 60%, because these people are active professionally and they don’t go to the doctor or do tests”, he said.
According to the professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, the symptoms of diabetes “are more or less known” – such as being very thirsty, urinating a lot and having a tendency to drink a lot of liquids, which appear at a “more advanced” stage of the disease. ”, in which it is already symptomatic.
Advising periodic health assessments, Davide Carvalho said that people should ideally undergo tests once a year, but, he noted, if they were carried out between three and five years, the majority would end up being diagnosed.
“They must carry out assessments according to the context, because often these patients either have a family history of diabetes or were born overweight or (…) are also obese or have other diseases, such as, for example, hypertension, and, therefore, In these cases, glucose measurement must be carried out to diagnose diabetes”, he maintained.
According to the annual report of the Diabetes Observatory 2023, more than one million Portuguese people live with the disease, mainly due to dietary errors and lack of physical activity, in addition to hereditary factors.
“In people who develop diabetes at the age of 70, the probability of developing retinopathy and nephropathy resulting from diabetes is lower than in those who present at 30/40 [years], because [these] live longer years with high sugar and eventually decompensated and the risk of complications is greater. That’s why it says diabetes can shorten life expectancy by about seven years in every diabetic patient, if it’s relatively early,” he said.
In Portugal, around 90% to 95% of diabetics have type 2 diabetes, with a lower frequency of type 1 diabetes compared, for example, to Swedes and Finns.
With the increase in obesity during the covid-19 pandemic, Davide Carvalho, citing Roy Taylor, highlighted that to reverse diabetes, initially, it is necessary to start “a very restrictive diet”.
“[Losing] around 800 kilocalories can cause an individual to lose weight and reverse their diabetes. (…) We must not forget that for type 2 diabetes, dietary care and reducing caloric intake are fundamental”, he stressed.
The endocrinologist also recalled that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes covid-19, can lead to the destruction of the beta cell (which produces insulin in the pancreas), causing diabetes “very similar” to type 1 diabetes, insisting on awareness campaigns, in order to prevent the increase in diabetic patients, which could reach 1.300 million in 2050 in the world.
“I think there have to be campaigns, and there have already been some measures (…), such as taxes applied to products, such as soft drinks, with excess sugar, higher taxes on products that contain excess salt as well. There have been some measures. Of course they don't arrive. It also depends a lot on an individual attitude. (…) Everyone is a little bit of their own doctor and, therefore, has to take measures that allow them to reduce their weight, monitor their weight, stay physically active and have food options that are appropriate to their situation”, he highlighted .
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