1. It is not sugar
"If you eat sugar, you'd get diabetes". This is what I almost always hear people say. Often, this is not the cause of diabetes. Let's get it right once and for all. People have diabetes either because their body can't produce the right amount of insulin(a chemical that helps regulate the amount of sugar in your blood) or their body can't utilize insulin well.
2. It Is More Wide Spread Than You Think
In United States only, 21.9 people (9.3% of the population) are diabetic 8.1 million of these are not even aware of their diabetic condition. In contrast to popular believe, diabetes is no longer only an old man's illness. Even infants now have diabetes.
3. It's getting worse
According to WHO, total death from diabetes will arise by 50% in the next 10 years. In the upper middle income countries, it would arise by 80%.
4. There Is a Third Type Of Diabetes.
The 2 commonly known types of diabetes are the type 1 diabetes (characterized by lack of insulin production) and type 2 diabetes (characterized by the inability of the body to effectively us insulin). Notwithstanding (but withsitting ) , there is a third type of diabetes. It is known as the gestational diabetes. Just as it sounds, it is "gestational" meaning you can only be diagnosed with this type of diabetes if you are when you are pregnant. That's minus one thing men need to worry about. Single men to be precise.
5. It Causes Kidney Failure
The main function of our kidney is to get rid of wastes and excesses from our blood. When one is diabetic, (s)he has excess sugar in her/his blood. The kidney tries as much as possible to eliminate this excess from the blood but when this condition is prolonged, the kidney starts to get tired.
6. It Causes Cardiovascular Diseases
CVD's are diseases related to the heart and blood vessels. Diabetic people often show one or more of the following risk factors.
- High cholesterol
- Obesity
- High blood pressure
- fatigue
- Inactivity
7. Slow Healing.
Diabetic patients wants to avoid incurring injuries. Whenever Bam Kay gets a small wound, he leaves it for few days because often, this wound will heal itself. But if Bam Kay was diabetic, his wound might not heal in time if not given proper attention, giving chance for infection. Diabetic patients should always take slightly serious wounds to the hospital for proper care. I know a man who had a serious injury but chose to go for home based treatment. At the end of the day, one of his arm got amputated.
But why do diabetic patients heal slowly? I would write about that in my next post.
8. Diabetes Kills More People In Low- and Middle Income Countries.
Why this is so, I don't know. Probably it is due to 2 things.
The first reason is obvious. Many people in these countries can't afford healthy, balanced diet neither can they afford good medical care. Are there things that could be done about this. It's gonna take some changes in governmental policies to improve the lives of people in these areas. We all know how long such changes takes to occur.
Secondly, people in these regions are too religious. Some people, especially in Nigeria believes that illnesses can be cured just by saying "I reject it". See? I highlighted it in red because that statement is killing more people than the Ebola Virus. I overheard a man saying "if my doctor diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes and told me not to eat pounded yam again, I would rather go to church for deliverance and start eating my pounded yam.". As dumb as that sounds, he meant it. Two years ago, a family friend died just because of this mentality. After being sick for a very long time, she was finally taken to the hospital. The doctor diagnosed her with type 1 diabetes. After all that, she refused to be admitted, neither did she accept any medication. She eventually died 3 months later. Since it seems this mentality is not working why don't you try something new. Maybe you should try this: when you have spiritual problem, handle it spiritually. But when you have health issues, handle it medically. Granted, if the medicine thing don't work for you , you can now go ahead and do whatever is in your mind.
9. Diabetes Can Be Prevented.
If Bam Kay was diabetic (of course he's not), it doesn't necessarily mean his son or son's son would be diabetic. Diabetes can be prevented by sticking to healthy diets and staying physically active. Prevention they say, is better than cure.
bonus: Just in case you don't know diabetes full name, it's diabetes mellitus. So just like you and I, diabetes has a first name and a last name. You can laugh to that ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment