Andhra Pradesh

A word of caution about diabetes

Kakinada: Diabetes has become one of the biggest causes of death among all non-communicable diseases around the world but people still feel safe at the doorstep of doctors whose role in controlling the disease is only 25 per cent.

A few realise that diabetes is connected to lifestyle which can be prevented from threatening lives only by doing regular exercise, taking balanced diet and constantly watching blood sugar levels as a precautionary measure, according to Ram Swaroop Jawahar, a physician who is concentrating on diabetes control.

India has about 4.5 crore diabetic patients and the number is bound to rise further largely due to sedentary lifestyle and genetic transmission to some extent, he says.

Speaking at an awareness programme on diabetes for mediapersons here on Sunday, Dr. Jawahar said while full blown cases of diabetes were being treated at different levels, the number of pre-diabetes cases was increasing alarmingly.

Pre-diabetes was a stage where the fasting blood sugar value ranges between 110 and 126 and post-lunch 180 and 200.

Higher sugar levels require proper disease control measures and regular physical exercising, lest the disease spreads to all vital organs, mostly heart and brain, he said.

Dr. Jawahar said people tend to live with diabetes for years either due to innocence or ignorance and when death occurs, the heart or some other organs were blamed whereas the real culprit was diabetes. In India, Type-II diabetes was setting on at the age of 30 plus, a major cause for concern.

Ophthalmologist K. Lakshmoji Naidu said diabetes had devastating impact on eyesight. Retinopathy (complete of loss of vision or poor sight) was the most common complication among diabetics, he said.

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