The theme of the World Diabetes Day 2017 which falls on November 14 this time is Healthy Women - Healthy Nation. World Diabetes Day is the world’s largest diabetes awareness campaign reaching a global audience of over one billion people more than 160 countries. The campaign draws attention to issues of paramount importance to the diabetes world and keeps diabetes firmly in the public and political spotlight.
According to the latest Health Ministry statistics, the percentage of diabetes prevalence in Sri Lanka is over 10.3 per cent. It is 27.1 per cent in Colombo, 20 per cent in Jaffna and 20 per cent in Colombo suburbs. Here Senior Lecturer in Medicine attached to the University of Colombo and Hon. Consultant Endocrinologist and Diabetologist University Medical Unit National Hospital, Sri Lanka Dr. Prasad Katulanda, MD, FRCP (Lond), FCCP, FACE, DPhil (Oxon), speaks about preventing diabetes.
Q - Who are prone to Diabetes more, males or females?
A - Women are more prone to diabetes than men because of their lifestyle and pregnancies. The impact of diabetes is severe on women than men due to the same reasons. Women are prone to developing diabetes during the pregnancy and one in every five women who have diabetes in child bearing age. Ten per cent of pregnant mothers develop diabetes. Two out of every five pregnant mothers who develop diabetes have the chance of developing Type Two diabetes at a later time. Various health complications can be developed both in the mother and her fetus due to diabetes.
Q - How women can prevent developing diabetes?
A - The young girls should follow healthy lifestyle in order to prevent diabetes and to avoid developing diabetes in children they have in future. This is the only way of preventing diabetes. The young girls should keep their Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18 and 23. They should keep their waistline below 80 cm. Their bodies should not be thin or fat. They need to maintain ideal body size for healthy women. This will minimize the possibility of developing diabetes when they get pregnant. Around 35 per cent of Sri Lankan women are obese.
Q - What should and what should not a wife /mother do to prevent diabetes in her and her family?
A - Women, especially Muslim women lack of exercise. All women should do regular exercise and it encourages their husbands and children to do more exercise. Otherwise women face various other health problems in addition to diabetes when they grow old. The weaknesses in muscles lead to put more pressure on their back, knees and other parts of the body. This pressure leads to develop other diseases. Exercises are essential to burn calories, to prevent diabetes and to maintain healthy and strong muscles.
Q - What is the impact of food and beverages on developing diabetes?
A - The mother of the house should decide what her family eats and how much they eat. Eating sugar and carbohydrate should be controlled. Green fruits and vegetables should be added to the food list buy from the supermarket. Refined sugar should be completely avoided because it is very bad for health. It is called `empty calories’. No nutrition at all in refined sugar. Refined sugar consumption leads to fatty Liver, Diabetes, tooth decay and many other diseases. Pumpkins, Potatoes, sweet potatoes, jakfruit, etc are carbohydrate. We need to cut down the quantity of rice when we eat those food. Salads, cucumber, leaves, Ridge Gourd, Snake Gourd, winged bean, etc are good. Fish is a very good food.
Human beings are omnivores. They should not be fundamentalists when it comes to eating various types of food. Eggs are a good food with many nutrients including Vitamin D, protein and there is nothing wrong in eating eggs. Doctors should apologize from the people for advising them not to eat eggs in the past. We should not eat what we have not been eating. For an example eating various types of specific leaves, fruits etc drinking various specific types of juices etc should be avoided. It is advisable to avoid eating Star Fruit (Kaamaranka) for the moment. We should not eat anything too much.
Q - What are the other changes in life that should be done in order to avoid diabetes?
A - We have to completely change some of our `fashions’ in life such as bringing chocolates when returning from abroad etc. We can bring some olives instead of chocolates. We should never spend our leisure time by watching television, playing with the tab or mobile phone. We should do be physically active. The people who cannot walk due to leg problems can do many other exercises with the guidance of a professional physiotherapist. They can do the exercises that aimed at tummy. We have to burn what we eat (the calories we take). Otherwise they store in our bodies and make trouble for us.
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