Indigenous tribes in Asia, Australia, the Pacific and the Americas are suffering from type 2 diabetes (adult-onset) at higher rates than other populations, and could someday be destroyed from the negative health effects of the disease, the experts said.
Type 2 diabetes is a "lifestyle" disorder generally brought on by over-consumption of sugary foods and lack of exercise. Diabetics' bodies cannot properly use insulin to process sugary foods, and even with treatment, the disorder can cause long-term health problems and premature death.
Indigenous tribes -- such as the Australian Aborigines -- are especially prone to developing type 2 diabetes because their bodies have difficulty adapting to high-sugar, high-fat Western diets. Experts estimate roughly one in four Aborigines have adult-onset diabetes.
David Shultz from the Nunkuwarrin Yunti Aboriginal health service in south Australia says diabetes boosts the risk of developing other serious health problems, including heart and kidney disease, vision problems and circulation issues -- which can lead to amputations.
The researchers in Melbourne problems similar to those observed among Aborigines have been observed in New Zealand's Maori tribes, Pacific Islanders and native Canadian and American tribes.
Fortunately, type 2 diabetes can be reversed with consumption of nutritious foods and increased exercise, but the Melbourne experts say other issues must also be addressed, such as socioeconomic disadvantages that fuel diabetes rates among indigenous tribes.
Consumer health advocate Mike Adams, author of "How to Halt Diabetes in 25 Days," says the diabetes epidemic can be largely blamed on the spread of Western fast-food diets.
"As native people abandon their traditional foods and turn to processed, factory-made American foods, their health is subsequently devastated, and they begin to show all the same diseases found across America -- diabetes, cancer, heart disease, depression and more," Adams said. "The common link is the food. If you eat like an American, you will become diseased like an American."
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