Sunday, November 23, 2008

Just in Case You Forgot: November is Diabetes Month

Every 10 seconds a person dies of diabetes in the world. 25% of Mauritian suffer or are at high risk of developing that condition which is one of the most common chronic medical problems and a major cause of ill-health. The tragedy is that half of those affected will not even know that they have the disease. With early diagnosis, access to care and awareness the development of diabetes can be prevented specially in children.

We need to create Awareness BIG Time! And it’s the responsibility of each and every one of us. Why not use our students as media and for campaigning during the holiday seasons? This will not only help them find out about a life-long health risk but will also help to cure our affected community.

Our medical system could definitely be computerized instead of the mess of the Bristol card and dossier: a diabetes patient who is also an orthopedic patient at the same hospital has currently 2 dossiers. Having the patient full case history on a computer screen will help speed up the system for the benefit of one and all.

But WHEN are we getting started? Thoughts, action plan and decisions should meet reality within weeks! Our community is Dying!

9 comments:

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Cutting down on pakoras will surely help. But if you don't exercise you're inviting trouble.

akagugo said...

We know that added sugar is harmful - the figures show a record number of amputations, so what about taxing it?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

A national disgrace indeed. And there is a big variation across the UK.

I've wondered -- for a number of years -- how does our national rate of amputation compare to other countries.

We didn't really need this campaign. Feels like sharing a sick joke.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

I heard a stat of 450 amputations every year in our country or about 9 a week. That doesn't seem to keep a lot people awake at night.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

This is how insulin is being stored. Seriously?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Mauritian adults are also much better off eating their fruits than drinking them. This will impact your blood sugar in a more reasonable way -- we have a diabetes problem here don't we? If you want to drink something then drink vegetable juice. And tons of water.

Btw, did you know that watercress has more vitamin c than oranges? In fact it beats a lot of vegetables at their own games.

akagugo said...

Wanna know how much of vitamins/minerals your food contains? Go here and have fun comparing. And you discover why an infusion of thyme, lemon and honey combined can keep the flu at bay quite effectively. And how much vitamin C you get from a leaf of mint. Or how much goodness there is in tea. Etc, etc...

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Article with plenty of common sense. One thing though. Didn't see the data that proved we're rolling back diabetes.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

2/3 of the 437 million people with diabetes in the world live in cities which are home to only 1/2 of the global population. So it makes sense to use cities and other fora to tackle the epidemic.