A Global Crisis

New findings by the World Health Organization say the number of people living with diabetes has quadrupled since 1980, from 108 million to 422 million.

In the WHO’s first Global Diabetes Report published in the medical journal Lancet, the organization announced that diabetes killed 1.5 million people worldwide in 2012 alone, with high blood glucose levels causing another 2.2 million deaths. The worldwide rise in adults with diabetes is said to mirror the number of people who are overweight or obese. Type 2 diabetes can be controlled with proper exercise, by maintaining a healthy weight through a nutritious diet and avoiding smoking.