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During my recent vacation to Guanajuato, Mexico, I learned Oklahoma and Mexico have something unexpected in common: Diabetes now is Mexico’s leading cause of death, ravaging the nation just as it ravages Oklahoma.

Although diabetes is not the leading cause of death in the Sooner State (heart disease is), its toll is huge, especially among minority groups. I didn’t expect a more traditional, less affluent culture would have such a problem.

I thought the disease, at least the type 2 variety, was more of an affliction of rich countries where exercise is insufficient; inexpensive, nutritionally empty food is plentiful; desk jobs are the norm and stress is everywhere.

Sure, Mexican food isn’t always the healthiest cuisine, with its many fried delicacies, fattening sauces and lots and lots of carbohydrates, but people walk more, and fast food is less a part of people’s diets than here. And certainly not all Mexican food is unhealthy.

Granted, Hispanics on the U.S.-Mexico border (and in general) are more likely to have diabetes than whites, but I always figured that was more an issue of poor nutritional knowledge and the difficulty of eating well and working out when raising a family on little money than anything else.

So, I found several stories I read in Mexican newspapers while on vacation interesting. This is from a recent edition of the Mexican newspaper Milenio, handily translated using Google:

Mexico City – The Ministry of Health warned that the lack of prevention and education on diabetes are the leading causes of its growth, (so) it is necessary to work on measures to prevent it, especially in public schools.

The director of the Metabolic Syndrome Clinic at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Guadeloupe Fabian, warned that although the federal agency carries out activities important to control diabetes, it is essential that the Ministry of Education, universities and the pharmaceutical industry get involved.

Otherwise, diabetes … could become a pandemic.

Fabian emphasized that physical inactivity and poor diet are two predominant factors for the development of diabetes, which also affects children, and that 50 percent are related to problems of hypertension.

Sound familiar? Here’s more, from the Nov. 4 edition of El Universal:

Mexico City – Today it is natural to see a young man no more than 20 years old rely on injected insulin or suffer attacks of high blood pressure, conditions that two decades ago were exclusive to adults. The sedentary lifestyle, excess intake of junk food and a lack of natural nutrients are the main factors incidents youth to acquire these pathologies.

In view of Aurora Serralde Zuñiga, medical specialist in clinical nutrition at the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition Salvador Zubirán (INNSZ), the facilities of modern life based on technological devices promote less physical activity in young people. “On many occasions spend hours, for work or school, sitting in front of a computer or moving car and no longer walk,” he said.

In Mexico there are on average 6.5 million diabetics 20 years old or older.

“The genetic predisposition that the Mexican has the disease, coupled with bad eating habits and physical inactivity, results in juvenile diabetes,” said Jesus Montes Carrizales, a specialist in sports medicine of Tecnologico de Monterrey.

If the family pillar in the development of the young, not teaching good eating habits such as consumption of vegetables, fiber and water, and no physical activity … promotes the consumption of pizza, hamburgers and fries while watching television The young think that it is normal and healthy.

To prevent diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and heart problems at an early age, both specialists invite young people to be physically active constant change the fries and soda for fruit and water, and leave the car for a walk.

And this from the newspaper’s Nov. 3 edition:

Mexico City – Mexico occupies ninth place worldwide in the number of patients with type II diabetes, totaling 6.6 million people with the disease, warned internal medicine specialist Paul Frenk.

If that trend continues in the coming years this figure could more than double, said the expert from the Latin American Society of Internal Medicine (Solami) and the American Diabetes Association.

Frenk warned that more and more young people, including children, are suffering the disease, which has become the common enemy to overcome throughout the world, and “in 2020 Mexico is expected to reach nearly 15 million diabetics.”

Frenk noted that the most regrettable matters is that increasing numbers of children and young people who develop the disease, which only some 15 years ago was designated for the elderly.

“We have the habits of our neighbors to the north, now the games are children via computer and fun is television and movies, and no longer exercise. Is a major problem and that we have to begin to change in the home and school,” he mentioned.

Diabetes is a serious public health problem, which will have an impact on catastrophic costs for both public health services, and for those who suffer and have no insurance or are covered by a social security program.

This due to diseases that develop as a result of diabetes, such as chronic renal failure, blindness and heart disease.

In Mexico diabetic retinopathy is the number one cause of blindness and is the first reason for myocardial infarction (heart attack), and that diabetes causes severe damage to the kidneys.

Any thoughts on diabetes in Mexico or Oklahoma? E-mail me at jraymond@oklahoman.com.

Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer