Walking Deficiency Syndrome

According to the WHO, the number of people with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. Healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use are ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes[1].

The term 'type 2 diabetes' gives everyone the impression that the problem is a disease, but some beg to differ.

According to Sir Muir Gray, one of Britain's leading medical practitioners, type 2 diabetes should be renamed 'walking deficiency syndrome' because he thinks it's not a 'real disease'[2].

Sir Muir Gray has done extensive research on how modern lifestyles such as sitting at a desk or in a car are contributing to the risk of disease. He claims that type 2 diabetes, which is largely preventable, but costs the NHS billions of pounds a year to treat, should be renamed because it is caused by the 'modern environment'.

Sir Muir Gray said: 'I wrote about this and somebody wrote back and said it was called a 'metabolic syndrome'. I said I don't believe in metabolic syndromes. The problem with calling it type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome makes you think it's like rheumatoid arthritis or a real disease. These are conditions caused by the modern environment.'

Nearly 4 million people in the UK suffer from diabetes and approximately 90 per cent of these are type 2 diabetes sufferers. By contrast, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition and often emerges in childhood.

The chances of developing type 2 diabetes are greatly exacerbated by being overweight and many sufferers are able to reverse the condition by dieting alone.

[1] World Health Organization: Global report on diabetes – 2016
[2] Type 2 diabetes? It's 'walking deficiency syndrome' and not a real illness, says top doctor in Daily Mail – 2017