Deaths over 65 have increased by 80% due to rising temperatures, according with a report from the University of Dusseldorf to the European Diabetes Association published last year in the scientific journal, “Diabetologia».

The unpleasant remark is made in an interview with FM Agency and Tania Madouvalou by Panagiotis Halvatsiotis, associate professor of diabetes pathology at EKPA, who even mentions that these numbers are expected to increase further, because the frequency of the heat wave is also increasing. “While in the past experts estimated that we would have a heat wave of more than 40 degrees Celsius every 100 years, now we now have such climate burden episodes every 3.5 years in the European Continent.” At the same time, Greece according to a study published last month in “Lancet“, belongs to the high-risk countries, as the professor says, “for all those diseases that are transmitted by insects, such as malaria, dengue fever, etc. And in fact, people with diabetes are at risk of getting sick more severely.”

Increase in imports in May for diabetics

At another point in his interview, the professor cited his study New York State Department of Health which was published last month in the scientific journal “Science of the Total Environment”, stated that diabetics, due to the increase in temperature in recent years, show a 4.5% increase in imports and especially in the month of May, which is in fact the first warm month of the year. The study, in fact, concerned a sample of 137,794 admissions to all New York State hospitals in the period 2013-2020. “In particular, diabetics who present with ulcerative neuropathy, have frequent hypoglycemic episodes due to unstable diabetes, atherosclerosis-related diseases such as hypertension, or have had a heart attack are at even greater risk.”

Each degree rise in temperature increases the incidence of type 2 diabetes and pregnancy by tens of thousands

All reviews, says Professor Halvatsiotis, conclude that every one degree increase in temperature increases the incidence of type 2 diabetes by tens of thousands as well as gestational diabetes, because the phenomenon of insulin resistance increases. “The dehydration that occurs in the summer, together with the weakness of thermoregulation and the possibility of taking drugs that increase dehydration, such as diuretics, lead more easily to the dysfunction of the metabolism, as a result of which these complications appear. What is certain is that high temperatures increase the percentage of diabetics, but also worsen their good image.” All these elements should lead us, emphasizes Mr. Halvatsiotis, either at the level of the State or local government, or each of us, to take the necessary measures, because among other things, we know that for climate change, the use of petrochemicals, i.e. petroleum products as an energy fuel, plays a very large role. “These fuels, in addition to increasing the temperature, and the amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides circulating in the atmosphere, also produce very small particles, which through our respiratory system, can enter the bloodstream, affect our neurohormonal system and thus cause problems such as malignancies, fertility problems, dementia-related problems, cardiovascular problems, fetal problems when these particles enter a pregnant woman’s body.”

All of this, says the professor, refers to a study of the “New England Journal of Medicine”, which was published in March “and essentially comes to add other causes of risk from the use of oil as fuel, but also our industrialized life, because many of these small particles come from plastics, insecticides, cosmetics and from forest fires, which can carry these unhealthy elements hundreds of kilometers away.”