Diabetes care tailored to Asian subgroups

SF Gate: 11/6/12

No one has ever accused Dr. Bhupendra Sheoran of packing on the pounds. At 5 foot 10, the Oakland resident is a healthy 175 pounds. A physician for most of his life, he habitually avoids fast food and hits the gym.

So it came as a shock five years ago when he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes – a disease traditionally associated with being overweight or obese.

A phone call home put the situation in perspective, said Sheoran, 40, who lived in his native India until he moved to the Bay Area in 2005. He discovered that his sister and two uncles have the disease, and his father had symptoms.

“I don’t think anybody talked about it,” he said. “It didn’t seem that they were taking any dietary precautions. They would eat whatever I ate: dessert, white-flour stuff, high-carb stuff.”

Sheoran’s case is not unique. Diabetes is a rapidly growing epidemic that affects almost 26 million people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more

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