World Diabetes Day is celebrated all over the world on 14th November each year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sir Fredrick Grant Banting who along with his student Charles Best discovered Insulin in 1922. The theme of this year is Diabetes and Well-being. The focus of the campaign is on highlighting the impact of diabetes in the workplace. So, the slogan is ‘Know more and do more for diabetes at work.’
It
is all knowing that diabetes is a serious health disorder which occurs when our
pancreas fails to produce adequate amounts of insulin or for some reason when
our body fails to use effectively the insulin it produces. Actually, Insulin is
a hormone which regulates blood sugar.
The
diabetes scene in our country is quite disturbing. Our country has more than
17% of total diabetes cases world over and hence it is known as the diabetes
capital of the world. And the cases are rising fast. Large number of youths,
children and professionals are joining the fold. In our country the type 2
diabetes cases are about 90% and the rest are type 1 (Insulin Dependent). The
growing uncertainty and anxiety at work place is adding a good number of those
persons who can afford a reasonable level of healthy living. To say, it is
absolutely necessary to address this issue through awareness, motivation and
medical intervention.
Undoubtedly,
Indians are more prone to diabetes due to our genes and ethnicity, but equally
or more responsible cause has been our unhealthy lifestyle. Experts do term
diabetes as a lifestyle disorder which is preventable and reversible. The main
reasons for being diabetic are: overweight or obesity (Body Mass Index more
than 25); not exercising regularly; increased anxiety and stress level;
Environmental and genetic.
Diabetes
has a serious impact on our health. It can damage blood vessels in our heart,
kidneys, eyes and nerves putting us at high risk of stroke, heart attack, loss
of vision, kidney failure and nerve problems.
The symptoms
of diabetes include the urge for urinating more than normal; feeling very
thirsty; feeling tired; blurry vision; weight loss without any valid reason;
bruises or cuts that heal slowly; numbness, tingling and/or pain in hands and
/or feet. However, through regular health check-ups including blood tests, it
is easy to detect it on time as particularly in cases of type 2 diabetes, the
normal symptoms as enumerated above can be mild and can go unnoticed for long.
Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes can be managed effectively and also reversed through healthy diet, regular exercise, medication, yoga & meditation. Now healthy diet means eating Fiber-rich food items that includes whole grains, fish, egg, low fat cheese, seasonal fruits and non-starchy vegetables like apple, orange, guava, papaya, tomato, cucumber, cauliflower, lady’s finger, bitter gourd, broccoli, avocado etc. Taking ginger, garlic, pepper, cumin, turmeric, clove, cinnamon, berries and nuts in your diet are found to be beneficial. Through regular exercise, yoga and meditation you can very well keep yourself strong, cool and composed to face any physical as well as mental pressure. Even morning and evening meditation of 10-15 minutes daily help you immensely to keep you mentally fit and agile. Yes, avoid taking much sugar and salt in your diet and say a big no to processed, preserved, frozen and packaged foods besides alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks. Spending quality and joyful time with family, friends and relatives, and sleeping well at night are also effective means to ward off incidence of diabetes. As far as medication is concerned, follow the prescription of your doctor sincerely.
As always, I'm keen to know what you think on this subject. Hence, I request you to post your comments to share your valuable opinion. (hellomilansinha@gmail.com)
# Published in "Morning India" daily on the occasion of World Diabetes Day (14th November)
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