Explosion of diabetes cases in UK

The UK is seeing an explosion of diabetes linked to growing obesity rates, experts are warning. From 1997 to 2003 there was a 74% rise in  new cases of the disease and, by 2005, more than 4% of the population  was classed as having diabetes - nearly double the rate of 10 years  earlier. The bulk of cases are type 2 diabetes -which is linked to being  overweight or obese - the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health  reports.

The findings suggest that rates of diabetes are increasing at a faster  rate in the UK than they are in the USA, where prevalence of the disease  is already one of the highest in the world. Of more than 42,642 people  who were newly-diagnosed with the disease between 1996 and 2005, just  over 1,250 had the inherited insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes, and more  than 41,000 had later-onset type 2 disease, which is linked to  lifestyle. While the numbers of new cases of type 1 diabetes remained  fairly constant over the decade, newly-diagnosed type 2 disease did not.