Global aging and rising body weight will more than double the number of people with diabetes by 2050, researchers predicted, putting millions more people at risk of a variety of dangerous disorders. More than 1.3 billion people worldwide will have diabetes at the half-century mark, up from 529 million in 2021, according to estimates released Thursday by the Lancet medical journal. A loss of the body's ability to control blood sugar levels, diabetes affects one in 10 adults globally and caused 6.7 million deaths in 2021, the International Diabetes Federation estimates. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, accounting for about 96% of cases. Effective weight-loss programs have proven hard to implement at large scale, and many health-care systems are not prepared to intervene in diabetes early, the researchers note.