Nearly one million Australians are currently diagnosed with diabetes and two million more have a pre-diabetes condition. Figures released by Diabetes Australia-Vic this month show that 252,000 Victorians are now living with diabetes, and this figure is increasing by 73 new cases each day. Coralie Souvatzis who lives in the Manningham area of Melbourne is one of those statistics. Reflecting national and state trends, the number of diabetes cases in Manningham has risen 160 per cent over the last ten years.

Coralie (54) was first diagnosed with gestational diabetes when pregnant in her twenties, but contracted type 2 diabetes some years later.

“I was in denial when I was first diagnosed. I thought it wouldn’t amount to anything so I didn’t make any life changes, in spite of the fact that both of my parents were diabetic. I thought it just wouldn’t happen to me. The years went by but I still didn’t take it seriously,” says Coralie. Told that she could manage her condition by changing diet and lifestyle, Coralie regrets that she didn’t take the advice to heart earlier.

“I was never really serious about it, I went up to about 91 kilos at one stage, then in the last year or so I went back to get tested. The sugar levels were again too high and my cholesterol levels were up. My doctor said that I’d need to go on tablets, and that scared the heck out of me.” “I wish I’d taken this on board when I had been diagnosed in the earlier stages, and become serious and taken ownership of the disease. It’s just in the last six months that I’ve taken things on board. I’m walking a lot more now and taking smaller serves.”

“Above all you have to be serious with yourself. My message to others is ‘forewarned is forearmed.’ “Living a diabetic lifestyle is a really healthy way to live, there’s nothing that you can’t do, there’s not much you can’t eat, it’s about sensible sizing and caring for yourself.”

Doctor Stan Savvas, a GP in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh believes type 2 diabetes is the single most serious health issue facing Australia and other western countries today. “In the case of diabetes, when you put on weight the pancreas is required to produce more insulin and insulin production is only finite,” explains Dr Savvas. “ The time comes when the pancreas can’t keep up and it starts to fail. Not only that, the cells that produce insulin start to die off. By the time the diagnosis is made, often half the total cell volume in the pancreas is dead.”

Dr Savvas’ diagnosis of the causes for the exponential rise in type 2 diabetes is simple. “People are becoming less active, sitting around and eating too much of the wrong sort of food, and they’re not burning it off.” “They’re developing what we call in the medical profession ‘the metabolic syndrome’ which is the tip of the iceberg, underneath are all these diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. One of the most worrying trends says Dr Savvas, is that the ’metabolic syndrome’ is now occurring in children and young adults.

“When I was a student 40 years ago we would never see a type 2 diabetes under the age of 45.” Dr Savvas’ prescription to help prevent diabetes comes from a source close to home. “We all need to adopt a Mediterranean diet,” says the GP. “We ‘ve got to eat what the ancient Greeks ate. “The lowest incidence of heart disease in Europe are the people from the mountain villages of Crete, they eat meat once a week no more, and the vegetables and fruit they produce.” With 400 patients on his books in ‘little Athens’, Dr Savvas’ first-hand experience of diabetes and its effects on the local community, reveals some culturally-specific drivers of the disease.

“It’s a very serious problem here because not all Greeks who came to Australia maintained their national diet. They looked to their Anglo-Saxon friends and they loved the meat being so cheap over here. When they first arrived they used to have a lamb every week. Of course most of those people are now in Springvale. They got diabetes and heart disease and popped off.” “Now people they have become are more cogniscent of the fact that this is a serious condition and they are going back more and more to their original Mediterranean-style diet.”

This month, Diabetes Australia, the national federated body that supports diabetes sufferers, launched a campaign to encourage prevention at a societal level and identify new ways communities can better protect themselves against the disease. Diabetes Australia-Vic’s Chief Executive, Professor Greg Johnson, says that particular onus lies with local government in encouraging actions that supports societal change.

“It is imperative that local communities understand the impact [of the epidemic] and take action.” “Local planning can limit the availability of unhealthy foods and promote better access to healthy foods. It can ensure people have good access to physical activity opportunities such as walking and cycling, recreation facilities and public transport,” “Preventive health is not just a responsibility of national and state governments,” said Professor Johnson, “local communities can be designed to be healthy communities.”