World Diabetes Day: Why changing your lifestyle alone will not prevent the disease

Think twice before using food containers made of plastic, warns a medical paper that was recently presented by a Mumbai endocrinologist in a conference by Research Society For the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) in Lucknow. The paper stated that environmental factors are becoming a major contributing factor in developing diabetes in India. The paper also stated that the epidemiological data shows increase in both incidence and prevalence of diseases associated with endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) such as breast, prostate and testicular cancer, diabetes, obesity and decreased fertility over the last 50 years.

"In India, earlier, most doctors have been saying that diabetes is a lifestyle disease. But now, slowly we have found that environmental factors also contribute towards development diabetes. There are lots of chemicals and pesticides used to ripen fruits, also using plastic container and artificial sweetener leads to developing diabetes. Now, our doctors also need to look at such angles. In abroad, it is already proved the environmental factors are causing diabetes," said Dr Shashank Joshi, president of RSSDI, who presented the paper and spoke on plastic food containers being one of the environmental factors contributing to diabetes. He said that EDCs can interrupt hormone signalling pathways of reproductive system and have also been implicated in the disruption of other biological functions such as the regulation of metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, development of cancer and many other organ functions. "EDCs include a variety of industrial chemicals, natural and synthetic hormones, pesticides, industrial by-products, consumer products, pollutants, plastics and plasticizers, fuels and many other chemicals that are present in the environment," said Joshi.

EDCs are found in everyday products (including plastic bottles, metal cans, toys, cosmetics and pesticides) and food. Some EDCs which are highly resistant to degradation remain stored in adipose tissue because of their lipophilic nature. These are known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The most common POPs are dioxins, organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), the main degradation product of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and by-products of industrial processes (such as dioxins and furans).

Joshi said that there are experiments suggesting that endocrine disruptors can disrupt pancreatic physiology, affecting both insulin and glucagon-secretory cells, leading to changes in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism. While there is continuous and unavoidable exposure to the endocrine disruptors directly or indirectly entering our food chain, Dr Joshi said that the strategy should reduce the deleterious effects of EDCs. "Some steps like washing hands thoroughly after use of industrial products (paints, fertilizers, cleaning agents, fertilizers etc,) washing fruits and vegetables before consuming, drinking filtered water, avoiding plastic food containers can help," said Joshi.