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Diabetes Doubles in Finland |
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By News
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Wednesday, 09 September 2009 |
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Diabetes has doubled in Finland in the last decade, with northern Finland being particularly hard hit.
 According to the Finnish Diabetes Association, around 300,000 Finns have diabetes - just under ten percent of the population - and the condition drains twelve percent of the nation's health budget. This is compared to only six percent in 1999.
The overwhelming majority of Finnish diabetics - 250,000 - have 'type two diabetes'. Otherwise known as 'late onset diabetes,' it tends to affect overweight, late middle-aged adults. The statistics speak for themselves, showing a sharp rise in diabetes amongst Finns over the age of 55. The condition is about 25 percent more common amongst men than women.
Leading the World
And that's only adult onset diabetes. Finland also leads the world in type 1 - or childhood onset - diabetes. According to medical journal The Lancet, diabetes in the Finnish under-14s doubled between 1980 and 2005 and there are now almost 50 diabetics per 100,000 young people. The Finnish Public Health Association put this down to way in which diets have become far less healthy in recent years with a sharp rise in the consumption of fast food.
The number of Finnish under-15s who are overweight is currently 20 percent. Just twenty years ago, it was less than ten percent. Being an overweight baby or toddler can inhibit the development of insulin production, leading to the early development of diabetes, claim the researchers.
Distinctive Genes
Head-researcher Dr Valma Harjutsalo of the Finnish Public Health Institute suggests that Finland's high rate of diabetes might be caused of Finland's 'distinctive genes' being brought into play as the Finnish diet changes. He has observed that Karelians in Russia, with their very different diet but very similar genes when compared to the Finns, have a diabetes rate that is one sixth of the Finnish rate.
'The incidence of type 1 diabetes continues to increase sharply in Finland, where it has been documented to be the highest in the world since the 1950s,' claims Harjutsalo. 'Evidence does not support the theory that the increase results only from a younger age at onset of the disease. The steep increase in incidence noted in the last half of the 1990s might represent a serious signal about unhealthy changes in our everyday environment that affect the penetrance of type I diabetes susceptibility genes.'
Winter Darkness
A Lancet article published this year has found that northern Finland has a higher rate of diabetes than the rest of the country. Various explanations have been suggested such as higher unemployment leading to a poorer diet and the lower level of light in the winter meaning that the body does not produce enough vitamin D.
Children from northern Finland given vitamin D supplements were found to be less likely to develop diabetes than those who were not given them.
Kirsti Talsi-Sirkka, the president of the Finnish Diabetes Association, emphasises that an important factor behind the high Finnish rate of diabetes is Finland's relatively small and homogenous population. This means there are particularly high rates in eastern Finland but these diabetic genes have never been activated until recently because Finns have not had access to enough sugar or food in general.
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