With the group stages of the 2010 World Cup in full swing, the health charity Diabetes UK has revealed that England has the lowest percentage of people with diabetes in their group. It was found that in England 3.6 per cent of its population suffers from the metabolic condition, Slovenia has 7.7 per cent, Algeria have 8.5 per cent, and the USA came last with 10.3 per cent of its population having diabetes .
Douglas Smallwood, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said “Diabetes is a serious condition and, if untreated, can lead to devastating complications including heart disease, stroke and blindness . Type 2 diabetes can be undetected for 10 years or more, meaning 50 per cent of people already have complications by the time they are diagnosed.
“Diabetes UK urges people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and take regular physical activity to cut their risk of developing the condition as having a large waist means you are up to 12 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. We can fight this health epidemic now – and this is the first step in the right direction.”
The charity decided to compare diabetes statistics in each country since the World Cup coincided with Diabetes Week . It pointed out that, despite being the country with the lowest population suffering from diabetes in the group, the condition is still one of the biggest health challenges facing the country.
