The rising number of diabetes cases among the young generation in India is a matter of concern and there is a need to evolve a treatment plan suitable to Indian conditions. This means medicines would be prescribed depending on the stage of the disease and kind of patient. Currently, doctors use the guidelines as prescribed by the American Diabetes Association. However, the incidence of diabetes has been increasing in India and there is need for a shift to specific parameters based on the requirements and body types of the Indian population. Treatment guidelines or algorithms developed and validated in developed nations may not be relevant or applicable to patients in India. In India, there are several factors such as early age of onset of diabetes, occurrence of diabetes in non-obese and sometimes lean people, differences in the relative contributions of insulin resistance and frequent infections including tuberculosis which impact treatment. A life style disease diabetes has emerged as a serious disease burden for India over the past two decades. While diabetes rate has increased by around 45 per cent globally, it jumped 123 per cent in India between 1990 and 2013, according to latest assessment by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Estimates by International Diabetes Federation showed nearly 6.9 crore people in India were suffering from diabetes in 2015 and it is expected to swell to 12.5 crore by 2040. According to the new treatment proposal, type-2 diabetes in Asian Indians differs significantly from that found in white Caucasians. Any treatment decision in Indians should take into account not only these differences, but also socio-economic and cultural factors (such as dietary practices), which may render some therapeutic options less suitable in this population. The treatment proposal also recommends use of some less expensive medicines and more lifestyle-based interventions. The proposal, published in an international journal Diabetics Technology and Therapeutics, contains views from 32 medical experts and endocrinologists from across the country.
