The Sweet Effect

Bengalis love to eat sweets. Their language is sweet, they love to speak sweetly. Today I’ll talk about these sweet people. The sweet people are not only living in West Bengal, but the sweetness is spread all over the World. Are you thinking about how really? I am talking about diabetes patients.

I was surprised to see the diabetes stats of the World Health Organization. According to them, 375 million people all over the world don’t know they have diabetes. Every year 1 million people are dying due to diabetes.

Causes of Diabetes

Insulin is a hormone that takes sugar from foods and moves it to the body’s cells. If the body does not make enough insulin or does not use insulin well, the sugar from food stays in the blood, resulting in high blood sugar. There are two main types of diabetes: 

• Type 1: The body’s immune system attacks the cells that produce insulin.
• Type 2: The body is resistant to the action of insulin and fails to produce sufficient amounts of this hormone to compensate. 

Scientists do not know the exact cause, but risk factors appear to include: excess body fat,  high blood pressure or cholesterol, having a close family member with the condition, a history of gestational diabetes.

Symptoms                 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the symptoms of diabetes are frequent urination, excessive thirst, constant hunger, weight loss, very dry skin, vision changes, and fatigue.  Diabetes can be detected through blood testing, such as fasting or random blood glucose test, oral glucose tolerance test, or glycated test.

My Experience                

My maternal uncle at the age of 47 was affected by diabetes. Like most of us, he didn’t believe that he may get the disease. In the primary stage, he ignored it. Even he did not go to the doctor. Later the dangerous disease didn’t allow him to ignore it. He started taking medicine as a doctor’s advice. The situation went into a tailspin. As the doctor’s suggestion, he went to CMC Vellore. The disease didn’t forgive him. Within a year diabetes took him away from us. I have regret, I could not do anything to save him. Currently my mom and my in-laws suffering from the same disease. I am taking care of them. I would like to create awareness to save people from the disease.

Treatment and Managing Diabetes

According to the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, people can live with diabetes. But it increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, blindness, foot ulcers and eventual limb amputation, kidney failure, neuropathy, bone and joint disorders, digestive problems, sexual dysfunction, tooth and gum problems. We can quell it and live a healthy life following some good habits:

1. Achieve and maintain healthy body weight.
2. Move your body at least 30 minutes regularly. Do whatever you enjoy. You can walk, dance, play your favorite outdoor games, play with your kids or pets, use stairs. 
3. Eat a healthy diet of three to five servings of fruit and vegetables a day and reduce sugar and saturated fat intake. Eat whole fruits. 
4. Quit tobacco and avoid the harmful use of alcohol.
5. Test blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels regularly.

Conclusion

As of now, there is no cure. People with diabetes need to manage their disease to stay healthy. Let’s start healthy habits today to get a healthy life where not only diabetes, no disease will think to come close to us.  We should be sweet in our words and behavior. Never allow your blood to be sweet. Stay healthy stay happy. Take care of yourself, your family members and friends.