How can disappearing jungles and savannahs raise sugar levels in the human body? Sadly, they can and there is now a growing body of scientific evidence to suggest direct linkages between disruptions in biodiversity to rising diabetes case load.
When roads and bridges make inroads into the natural world, not only the eco-system to absorb carbon dioxide gets destroyed but the added load of vehicles traversing these new paths leave behind clouds of suspended particulate matter that cause damage well beyond clogged lungs.
Quoting a just published research paper that he co-authored, Dr V Mohan, founder of Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and a leading diabetologist who has contributed extensively to research in the field of diabetes, says, we have found a direct correlation between particulate matter and type 2 diabetes. The paper, published in the BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, a leading diabetes journal, concludes with the finding that “our results suggest a link between long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (of diameter less than 2.5 microns) and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, which may have potential public health significance as well as policy implications for India, a country with high levels of ambient pollution as well as high burden of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases.”
Why It Matters For India
Diabetes has been a growing worry for India. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-INDIAB study, the doctor points out, has already shown there are as many as 101 million people with diabetes in India and another 136 million in the pre-diabetic stage. This places India next only to China in terms of number of diabetic patients in a country.
India has already overtaken China in terms of overall population and given that India is now the most peopled country on the planet, experts feel, it may just be a matter of time before India gets to beat China even in the incidence of diabetes. That is a distinction many may want to live without. Therefore, minimising the factors that trigger diabetes become crucial and hence the need to protect the biodiversity. For, it is not just adding to the particulate matter in the atmosphere, destruction of natural environment also has a direct bearing on lifestyles. With roads replacing leafy paths, nature trails get curtailed as do the avenues to walk and exercise – the best combat tools, that doctors have professed for long, against obesity leading to diabetes.
These on the back of a lifestyle that promotes ultra-processed foods, is an open invitation to obesity, diabetes and other health ailments. The doctor also points to some fundamental shifts in the nature and composition of foods that are getting consumed. “From the hand-pounded paddy, which was a produce closest to nature, the advent of rice mills in the 1960s and 1970s saw a shift towards consumption of polished rice laden with high glycemic index (which very loosely is a measure of how fast food can travel within the body and raise blood sugar).
While this shift may be good for traders since foodgrains can now be stored for longer duration, it is not necessarily an ideal transition from a health perspective. This, coupled with a rising share of ultra-processed foods in the consumption basket, has been an open invitation to the rise of non-communicable diseases – diabetes, cardiac ailments, respiratory disorders and cancers.
Reminding that “both particulate matter and pesticides are endocrine disruptors that affect insulin production and its action within the body triggering diabetes,” Dr Mohan says, the best way to limit both these is by turning towards a healthy lifestyle and by ensuring we preserve the biodiversity. This also means discouraging farm practices that mindlessly spew pesticides into the fields and emit ammonia into the air. Correcting these and protecting the dwindling biodiverse ecosystem, may be the only hope left. If not return planet Earth to its pre-human state, it could at least help ensure a more healthy life for all.