Chennai, Sep 9 : A symposium on “Recent Trends and Siddha Management
of Diabetes” was held at the National Institute of Siddha here on Saturday.
It was organized by the Central Council for Research in Siddha, Union Ministry
of Ayush, the National Institute of Siddha, Directorate of Indian Medicine and
Homoeopathy, and SEED Trust Tirunelveli.
The symposium discussed on tackling the burden of diabetes which is increasing
globally, and in developing economies like India, mainly fuelled by the increasing
prevalence of overweight/obesity and unhealthy lifestyles.
According to the ICMR-INDIAB-17 national cross sectional study estimates, the
prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes in India is 101 million and 136 million,
respectively that are much higher than earlier estimates in 2019 (77 million), which
is expected to rise to over 134 million by 2045.
Approximately 57% of these individuals remain undiagnosed, an official release
said.
“Uncontrolled diabetes leads to increased risk of vascular disease and much of
the burden of Type-2 diabetes is caused by macrovascular (cardiovascular,
cerebrovascular, and peripheral artery diseases) and microvascular (retinopathy,
nephropathy, and neuropathy) complications”, it said.
Diabetic complications are the significant cause for increased premature morbidity
and mortality among individuals with diabetes, leading to reduced life expectancy
and financial and other costs of diabetes leading to profound economic burden on
the Indian health care system.
To curb the epidemic of diabetes and its associated complications, there was a
need for a multipronged strategy including equipping the AYUSH students and
physicians to handle the epidemic, the speakers at the symposium observed.
A total of 5 plenary sessions by eminent scientists on different aspects
of Diabetes such as Current Trends in diagnosis, Protocols for Diabetic
Research, Pathophysiology as per Siddha, Research undertaken using
Siddha formulations and Dietary regimen were held during the symposium.