Health Choices

A person may have an active life — regular biking for a 50-something individual sure is an active activity.

And you probably knew someone with a lifestyle like this, plus he/she does not smoke, but then, all of a sudden, this kind of person suffered a stroke!

The culprit was diabetes, a seemingly hidden affliction known only through its debilitating outcome, as it triggers and complicates with other destructive illness that affects our health, seriously.

So serious is this diabetic sickness that the United Nations has mandated a World Diabetes Day, and this year’s theme is fitting and encouraging enough: “Understand Diabetes, and Take Control.”

For the 285 million adult diabetics worldwide, according to UN data, control is out of the question for them, for they will be forever hitched with strict daily medication and a spartan way of living.

Those who are diabetic-free yet, understanding this health anomaly is a key factor to avoid one — and, yes, do take control of your own life, discipline yourself, to keep away this illness of a lifetime..

In the Philippine situation, the facts are convincingly staggering: the number of Filipino adults with Type 2 or acquired diabetes stood at 3.4 million out of a 51 million adult population, with 4.9 million labeled as “border line” cases, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in its Diabetes Atlas for 2009.

“The numbers are increasing at an disturbing rate,” said Dr. Tommy Ty Willing, president and chair of Diabetes Philippines. “Type 2 diabetes usually develops among the middle-aged group between 40 to 50 years old. Now even high school students have Type 2 diabetes, which was very rare before,” Dr. Willing was quoted in a national broadsheet published report as saying.

Dr. Willing blamed little physical work-out among the young, along with a high calorie or fast-food diet. For the poor, there is malnutrition-related diabetes due to the food they take that destroys the pancreas, he added.

Basically, diabetes is a chronic disease where the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or if it does, the body cannot effectively use the insulin produced.

You see, and as you probably knew already, much of the food we eat is turned into sugar in the blood for our bodies to use for energy. A hormone produced by the pancreas called insulin helps sugar in our blood get into the cells of our bodies.

If your body doesn’t produce enough insulin, or if the insulin doesn’t work the way it should, blood sugar cannot get into your cells and, instead, stays in your blood, to be discharged later as urine, but not after having raised your blood sugar to dangerous levels, over 120 milligrams.

At any rate, it is important to keep your blood sugar under control — something your Doctor can readily advise, which you should religiously follow — because too much sugar lingering in your blood for a long time can damage blood vessels and nerves. And the consequences of inaction are always irreversible.

Among the leading complications of diabetes is kidney disease. Put another way, if one is diagnosed as having kidney problems, chances are great that such individual has been harboring diabetes, perhaps without knowing it until the kidney troubles cropped up.

Other fatal complications triggered by diabetes include heart disease, stroke, nerve ailments that can ventually lead to amputation of lower limbs, and eye diseases.

Now please do take note of these warning signs so that preventive, pro-active measures can be undertaken long before any of these signs manifest — or else we will be overtaken by time for having done too little, too late..

Among the causes for concern or alert are the following: frequent urination, excessive thirst, increased hunger, weight loss, tiredness, lack of interest and concentration, vomiting and stomach pain, tingling sensation or numbness in the hands or feet, blurred vision, frequent infection, and slow-healing wounds. (PIA)

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