Diabetes is a non-communicable disease that is growing in an epidemic scale worldwide. According to statistics, currently there are 387 million diabetes patients in the world, it is expected to exceed 592 million by the year 2035. Worryingly for us as Sri Lankans, for reasons not fully understood yet South Asians tend to have a high tendency for diabetes. At present, according to the results of a recent study, more than 20% of Sri Lanka's urban population is affected by this disease, and this situation is expected to worsen in the future!
Causes of Diabetes? Diabetes is caused when an organ in our body called "the pancreas" fails to produce a hormone called insulin or the insulin hormone that it produces cannot fulfill its real role.
The genes in our body as well as environmental factors in which we live in South Asia are seen to be major contributing factors to the high prevalence of Diabetes in our society. The disease has affected more than 20% of the urban population in Sri Lanka. If your family members already suffer from this disease, you will also be able to regain it. Your bad eating habits, exercise, and obesity will help you to get the disease down to you.
The most unfortunate fact, is that today, many children, in addition to adults, have also become victims of the disease. Asian pregnant mothers have been diagnosed with diabetes during pregnancy during pregnancy. Pregnancy Diabetes "The condition of the mother and baby's embryo results in a variety of adverse effects.
What are its complications?
Diabetes is a chronic illness that cannot be cured. If you do not control it properly, all the organs of the body will be adversely affected over time. Heart attacks, blindness, paralysis, kidney failure and loss of legs are recognized as the most dangerous complications. Most diabetes patients die from a heart attack. Statistics show that somewhere in the world, every 20 seconds a diabetic patient loses a leg and becomes an invalid.
How do you identify diabetes?
Although diabetes cannot be cured, the good news is that if you try you can prevent it. Typical symptoms you will experience when you have diabetes excessive thirst, heavy hunger, leanness, and excessive urination. However, most diabetes sufferers do not experience any of these symptoms and therefore live ignorantly until they experience complications.
Diabetes is a chronic illness that cannot be cured. If you do not control it properly, all the organs of the body will be affected negatively
So, how do you recognize diabetes and its symptoms? Firstly you can estimate the likelihood of getting diabetes. If you want to be sure, whether you have diabetes or not you can take the FBS, HbA1C diabetes test.
If your parents, any of your siblings, children suffer from diabetes, or if you are obese or someone who doesn’t exercise much or if you suffered from diabetes when you were pregnant you should get tested for diabetes without delay. Even if none of the above facts apply to you but if you are over 40 years of age now it is recommended that you too get tested for diabetes.
If you are a pregnant, don’t forget to get tested for diabetes in the first medical session. This is of extreme importance to both yourself and your child. Even if the tests confirm you are diabetes free It is advisable to check again every 3 years. By doing so even if you are diagnosed as ‘pre-diabetes” you will be able to prevent Diabetes by following medical advice!
Do you know what you can do to prevent diabetes?
The best investment you can do on behalf of your family’s health is to pursue a healthy lifestyle!
The first step to help preventing diabetes occurring in your children is to guide your child's tongue and mind away from synthetic short eats, synthetic sugary foods, and foods that have excessive flour and oil. Instead guide them to enjoy foods rich with vegetables and fruits.
Don’t accept the lie that it is impossible to make exercise an integral part of your day to day activities. All that’s required is a bit of effort, desire and a bit of time management. There is no time to delay. You may be the victim of diabetes tomorrow. Our message is that we should all be determined to overcome diabetes today!
Dr. Chandrika Subasinghe Senior Registrar in Endocrinology MBBS, MD
Dr. Uditha Bulgahapitiya MBBS, MD, FRCP Consultant Endocrinologist
