Team:BGU Israel/Human Practice/Target

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Pre-Diabetes

Diabetes Type 2


Pre-Diabetes

The term "Pre-Diabetes" might be new to some people; however it is important to learn about it. We also have learned more deeply, through our work on the project, of the pre-diabetes scope and meanings, and we would like to share our thoughts and knowledge with everyone.

Pre-diabetes is the stage before developing type 2 diabetes. It is reflected by having a higher blood glucose levels than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as a diabetic. In Israel of 2013 for example, there were half million diabetes and half million pre-diabetes of 8,000,000 in total, resulting diabetes to be the third highest cause of death..

One of the major obstacles in pre-diabetes is that there are no clear symptoms, so people who are in pre-diabetes status may not actually feel anything wrong. Most of the pre-diabetics usually discover it when being tested for diabetes.

Pre-diabetes is like a warning sign. In order to prevent type 2 diabetes, and even bring your blood glucose levels to normal, you should change your way of life drastically; starting immediately with a healthier diet and frequent exercises.

Researches show that it is possible to lower the risk for type 2 diabetes up to 58% by Losing 7% of your body weight and exercising moderately 30 minutes a day, five day a week. Unfortunately, most of the pre-diabetics are incapable in changing their habits so rapidly and in short period, and as a result, been pushed to the next stage and became diabetics. Unlike the pre-diabetes stage, once fully developed diabetes, there is no way back.

We have met with a leading consulting firm – "Trigger Foresight" (Deloitte), and with a client who works at the diabetes field and looking for new solutions and researches regard to this subject. Together, we have discussed the importance of our Inner Doctor treatment for the pre-diabetic population in particular, and for the health system in general.

Here are some of our thoughts:

Our Inner Doctor treatment will be able to help pre-diabetics who are not capable of changing their life-style, whatever the reason may be. Our Inner Doctor treatment will balance blood glucose levels by treating insulin resistance and by implementing advance fat burning strategies. Needless to say, we do not intend that pre-diabetes will neglect a healthy life-style only due to a new medical solution for their situation. We aim for a combined solution - right nutrition and exercise together with our Inner Doctor treatment – which will help pre-diabetics improve their health and quality of life significantly.  

  

Reduce presser on the health system:
Today in Israel, due to an extremely busy public health system, most doctors have no more than 15 minutes for patient. It is almost impossible to share all the necessary knowledge with the patient and be able to answer his questions and thoughts. Dealing with diabetes requires great effort and knowledge, and therefore puts a lot of pressure on the system. Reality shows that most pre-diabetics fail in the attempt of preventing type 2 diabetes. We believe that our solution could really make a difference in the public health system. Having said that, we can take Israel as an example, which for about half million pre-diabetics that from now on will not join the diabetes circle, and therefore will lead to less pressure on the system and to a better quality of medical treatment and services.

References:

Diabetes Type 2

After deciding to choose the Diabetes society in Israel as a study case for the Metabolic Syndrome we first sought to meet with the who's and who's in the field.  We visited CEO of the Diabetes Israeli Association Mr. Moti Perlmutter hoping to be guided and understand the problems of the people suffering from it, while directed as to where we can help the most. Mr. Perlmutter was very kind and helpful, he first listened and supported iGEM in general and our project specifically. He then, briefed us about the current stand of Diabetes 2 in Israel, astounding us with facts we didn't know and pointing to us the extreme differences between strong communities and the weaker ones where the Disease is prevalent. Mr. Prelmutter and the Association people accompanied all our Human Practice work in the Diabetes field, connecting us with experts, giving pamphlet materials to share in our activities, coming to lead workshops, bringing their "Diabetes-Mobile" to check patients when we requested. The combination of our drive, energy and enthusiasm with their experience, knowledge, capabilities and connections was a wonderful cooperation! (See more about the Bedouin campaign here)

Diabetes is a problem with the creation or consumption of the hormone insulin. There are two Types of Diabetes we will talk specifically on type 2, where the actual problem is with the uptake of the Insulin hormone, as the body produces Insulin without a problem but the body cells are not responsive to it, also known as Insulin resistance, which leads to a build-up of glucose in the blood liver and muscles-hyperglycemia. The great danger of Type 2 Diabetes, is that it is hard to detect and is mostly un-diagnosed when developing early in patients, so by the time patient is aware to the disease, blood glucose levels are very high and have already developed diabetes complication (Cardiovascular disease, Kidney disease, Eye disease, Nerve damage and the Metabolic syndrome and more).

Type 2 Diabetes is the most common type of Diabetes and mostly occurs in adults, but in recent years, a great rise in the prevalence among children and adolescents has been observed. Due to economic developments, ageing populations, increasing urbanization, dietary changes, reduced physical activity, and changes in other lifestyle patterns the number of people with Type 2 Diabetes is growing rapidly worldwide. It is a harsh and severe the problem and the amount of researches of population based diabetes are astronomic. Non-the-less, many governments still remain unaware of the current magnitude of the situation and the potential for increases in Diabetes and its serious complications.

Type 2 Diabetes can be found in both developed and in developing countries. It consists of 85%  to 97% of all diabetes and as research shows, developing countries will be closer to the higher percentage. The prevalence shown by the International Diabetes Federation is of 8.3% in adults, which is a total of 382 million people worldwide; most live in low-middle income countries. If the rise shall continue in the current rate, then by year 2035, 592 million people will suffer from diabetes. The death burden is tremendous - About 5.1 million people between the ages of 20 and 79 years died from diabetes in 2013, accounting for 8.4% of global deaths among people in this age group.

Statistics shows how Diabetes particularly affects those who are socially and economically disadvantaged, and worldwide the indigenous are mostly the "at risk" communities because of the recent urbanization processes leading to rapid change in diet and way of life. We can follow these trends all over the world and especially now in China.

In the Israeli society, statistics show two vulnerable communities, first, the Bedouin people who used to be nomads but have transformed into a modern life-style. Second, the immigrants from Ethiopia who, which had a quick one generation change in diet and life style. Moreover, both these population majorities come from a low-income status. In Israel  6.5% of people aged 20-75 are estimated of having diabetes, the Arabic community (including the Bedouins)  according to the general  center of heath is double the percentage  about 12% and the Ethiopian community that arrived to Israel at about 0-0.4% prevalence of diabetes, after 10 years  raised to 16% of diabetes presence.

The financial burden of diabetes varies from country to country; in Israel there exists a moderate social policy and a medical subsidies plan. Research done in Israel between the years 1999-2001 by the medical insurance company "Maccacbi" found that  all the expenses on: Hospitalizing, special doctors visits, drug treatments and nurse treatments all summed up to costs being 53% higher than the average expenses on the same gender and age group individual without Diabetes. Diabetes related expenses consisted 6.9% of all: Maccabi"'s expenses in 2001. From the patient's side, the monthly treatment -  mainly medicine and drugs stands at about 100$ and due to the fact that statistically most patients come from a low income background, sadly it seems that 15.6% of all patients in Israel gave up their medicine due to financial reasons.

Understanding the background and statistics of Diabetes gave us a better understanding of how huge and international this problem is, which gave us more motivation to suggest a better healthier and more effective solution to it. Furthermore, after reading and realizing how much money is spent on dealing with this disease we realized the potential market and financial feasibility of our project which is tremendous. We were also sad to notice that all over the world Diabetes is one of the dividers between wealthy and poor, and we hope that treating the Disease will also benefit in making  a more equal just world society.

References:

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