Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 22: In a groundbreaking study, scientists at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi have described a new type of diabetes they term as “Diabetes Type 4”. The lead Scientist in this research is the highly acclaimed Kashmiri clinical researcher Dr Muneeb Faiq.
According to Dr Muneeb Faiq and his team, this diabetes is uniquely different from the one accompanied with high blood glucose levels because it afflicts the brain and ocular tissues specifically.
Diabetes type 1 and 2 are accompanied with high levels of glucose in the blood but according to these scientists Diabetes Type 3 (Alzheimer’s disease) and Diabetes type 4 (glaucoma) is restricted to brain and ocular tissues respectively. Interestingly, Dr Faiq and his team has also made a case for Parkinson’s disease to be referred to as diabetes type 5.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness with more than 65 million sufferers worldwide. It is accompanied with severe compromise in quality of life, stress, depression, higher propensity to accidents and cognitive deficit in addition to huge economic burden. There is no cure for this malady and the only treatment currently available is lowering of eye pressure with medicines and/or surgery.
With a view of developing an effective remedy for glaucoma, scientists are busy in cutting edge research to know the nature and pathogenesis of this disorder. But, as of now, no effective theory to cover all the aspects of this disease has been found. The research carried out by Dr Faiq is likely to satisfy this long sought goal which may ultimately help in developing an effective cure.
It is relevant to mention here that Dr Faiq was awarded for his research on wound healing in glaucoma surgery at the 8th International Congress on Glaucoma Surgery held in Muscat in February last year. In May 2016, his research on functional genomics of glaucoma was adjudged as most innovative research on vision sciences at the annual meeting of Association of Research on Vision and Ophthalmology held in Washington, USA.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel