New Delhi (NVI): Generally, we think that air pollution can only affect our lungs or respiratory system. But a recent study shows that poor quality air can also make you a patient of Diabetes. Air pollution and diabetes claim millions of lives every year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), due to air pollution, you are at risk of lung cancer, respiratory infection, stroke, and heart diseases.
These days, the level of pollution is increasing worldwide. According to an air quality database released in 2018, more than 80% of the people living in cities around the world breathe polluted air. The pollution levels in many big cities of India also increase considerably in October-November.
Why is Diabetes considered dangerous?
Diabetes affects every important part of your body. Diabetes can cause your heart to fail, kidneys to stop functioning, stroke and liver malfunction.
Sugar starts increasing in the blood due to Diabetes. The affected blood then reaches all parts of the body. The sugar present in the blood affects the functioning of organs, due to which all the vital organs that keep you alive gradually start losing their capacity.
How does air pollution increase the risk of diabetes?
Research is still going on about why the risk of diabetes increases due to air pollution. But according to scientists, when some harmful chemicals present in the polluted air enter the body through the breath, they reach the blood and then to the tissues, gradually reaching different parts of the body. This damages the tissues and hinders the functioning of organs. Upon reaching the pancreas, these toxic substances can affect the body’s ability to produce insulin hormones and make cells insensitive to insulin, causing blood sugar to rise in a person’s blood.
How the research was conducted
According to research conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (US), air pollution and diabetes are closely related. This research has been published in a journal called ‘The Lancet Planetary Health’. For this research, a team was selected by the scientists, which was not diabetic. The health of all these people was monitored for 8.5 years. Apart from this, the scientists selected another group which neither had problems due to diabetes nor did they live in polluted areas.
After this study, scientists concluded that in the United States alone, more than 3.2 million people died due to diabetes in 2016 (only during one year) due to air pollution. Apart from this, the number of people who died due to different diseases due to air pollution was 8.2 lakh in this one year.
India more prone to such cases: Scientists
Scientists doing the research were of the view that low-income countries like India, China, Pakistan, and Indonesia have a higher risk of diabetes and deaths due to air pollution. The reason for this is that people are not very aware of pollution in these countries and therefore do not take much precautionary.
