I have discovered these days that more and more of my acquaintances are admitting that they are having what they euphemistically call "a touch of sugar".

In blunt terms, what is happening to them is that they are developing the disease known as Diabetes.

Now many of my acquaintances happen to be in their fifties, most of them are Sri Lankans, and (since all my schoolmates were boys) the majority of these acquaintances are males. Unfortunately, this particular group — South Asian men as they reach what we call Middle Age — are among those at the highest risk in today’s world of developing Diabetes.

The current theory to explain this phenomenon is that some humans are born with a gene for Insulin Resistance. This makes their bodies unable to process the sugars they eat, because their body cells become resistant to the hormone Insulin. It is this Insulin — a chemical produced in an organ called the Pancreas — which helps the body to process the carbohydrates and sugars that we eat and convert them into energy. Once the body becomes resistant to the action of insulin, sugars that we take in the form of food as well as sugars produced by the body itself cannot be utilised — and so tend to accumulate within the body and cause damage to other organs.

Now although we may be born with this gene for Insulin Resistance, it does not always manifest itself. What happens is that the gene can be "switched on" by certain environmental factors — the most relevant factor being advancing age. This is why people can go through their teenage and early adult life with no problems — but as they approach middle age the gene is switched on and they become diabetic.

One of the problems with middle age is that most people stop growing at both ends and start growing in the middle. Weight gain — particularly "Waist Gain" (weight gain around the waist) is another switch that triggers insulin resistance. Two other triggers for insulin resistance are Lack of physical activity (which in many cases gradually creeps up on us as we get older) and Smoking (which narrows the blood vessels, choking off the blood flow to various organs including the Pancreas).

So although we inherit the "diabetes gene" from our ancestors, it does not really take effect unless we allow it to. While none of us can stop advancing age, we can certainly minimise weight gain, increase our physical activity and avoid smoking. A fact that is highly significant is this: Reversing the triggers can switch off the gene.

A research study done some years ago in Finland investigated this theory — that even though some of us are genetically programmed to develop diabetes, we can by personal effort delay the inevitable onset of the disease until we get so old that it does not matter! The Finnish researchers studied two groups of subjects, both of whom had higher than usual levels of blood glucose — a state referred to as Impaired Glucose Tolerance or "Pre-diabetes". Although not yet at the stage where they could be considered Diabetic, these people were at the stage where their body cells were starting to become resistant to the effect of Insulin and beginning to find it difficult to process sugar.

While one group were given the usual advice that doctors give, the other group were provided with structured coaching and facilities for "Intensive personal lifestyle change" — which simply meant that they undertook daily physical exercise and an intelligently controlled diet.

At the end of the study (published in 2001) the researchers found a significant difference in the two groups: unlike in the "usual advice" group, those people who undertook intensive lifestyle changes were much less likely to have progressed to overt Diabetes.

Given the increasing incidence of diabetes — it is estimated that by 2025 Diabetes will affect 300 million people worldwide — perhaps it is worth considering a few changes in lifestyle that could prevent Diabetes developing with all its possible complications.