Kashmir Can Beat Diabetes

A landmark study shows lifestyle changes work better than medicine in preventing diabetes. In Kashmir, where cases are rising fast, this could be our best shot at fighting back.

- Sameer Mirza

More Kashmiris than ever are falling prey to diabetes.

It’s no longer just a disease of the elderly. Young professionals, college students, even teenagers are showing signs of high blood sugar, a slow-moving crisis hiding in plain sight.

According to National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), nearly 11 percent of adults in Jammu and Kashmir have elevated glucose levels.

That number is likely higher in urban pockets like Srinagar, where sedentary jobs, fast food, and stress have become the new normal.

We are treating it mostly with pills. But what if the better cure isn’t at the pharmacy, but in how we live?

‘A long-term American study, recently published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, has reignited that conversation, and it should matter here more than ever.

The U.S. Diabetes Prevention Program followed more than 3,200 people with prediabetes for over 20 years. The aim: compare the effects of metformin, a widely used diabetes drug, with lifestyle interventions like regular exercise, improved diet, and better sleep.

The verdict was visceral.