Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes: Explaining the Phenomenon in South Asians Worldwide

In people with South Asian ancestry, the cardiovascular diseases of  stroke and coronary heart disease (CVD) are epidemic, and type 2  diabetes mellitus (DM2) is pandemic. As South Asians comprise about 25%  of the world's population their high susceptibility is of global public  health and clinical importance. Eluding researchers across the globe,  this phenomenon continues to be a subject of intensive enquiry.

As  Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, points out, the  epidemics of chronic diseases, which he describes as a public health  emergency in slow motion, can be restrained but not stopped. With a  focus on the global South Asian population,Epidemic of Cardiovascular  Disease andDiabetes: Explaining the Phenomenon in South Asians  Worldwideis a critical review of current literature investigating the  increase in cases of CVD and DM2, and the data underpinning them. The  book argues that the high risk of CVD and DM2 in urbanised South Asians  is not inevitable, genetic, or programmed in a fixed way. Rather,  exposure to risk factors in childhood, adolescence, and most  particularly in adulthood, is the key to unravelling its cause.

Drawing  on current scientific literature and discussions with 22 international  scholars, the book presents a unique synthesis of theory, research, and  public health practice under one cover - from tissue research to human  intervention trials. It also addresses the challenge many health  professionals face in developing countries: to produce focused, low cost  and effective actions for combating CVD and DM2. The lessons contained  within will have ramifications in healthcare across the globe

Epidemic  of Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes: Explaining the Phenomenon in  South Asians Worldwideis ideal for scholars, researchers and health  practitioners working towards understanding and preventing the epidemics  of these modern chronic diseases across the world.