Diabetes in Pakistan is fast spreading with the country currently having seven million diabetics, which is predicted to grow to become the fourth largest population in the world by 2030 if appropriate measures are not taken to check the disease. This was the crux of the seminar organised by Shifa International Hospital on the eve of 'World Diabetes Day' here on Monday.
The participants included leading endocrinologist at Shifa International Hospital Dr Usama Ishtiaq and Director Emergency Department and Consultant Internal Medicine at Shifa, Dr Abdus Salam. A person with diabetes has a condition in which the quantity of glucose in the blood becomes very high due to lesser or no production of insulin in the body, which results in excessive glucose in the blood. The excess blood glucose is urinated therefore; the cells fail in getting the required glucose to meet body energy needs.
The year 2011 is the third year of the five-year focus on 'Diabetes education and prevention', the theme selected by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organisation (WHO) for World Diabetes Day 2009-2013. Dr Usama Ishtiaq said that according to an estimate, about 89,000 deaths occur every year in the country because of diabetes-related complications.
Dr Ishtiaq said that due to glucose remaining in the blood, the heart muscles thus start utilising fats for their energy requirements and this inevitably causes the build-up of fatty tissues around the heart that is why 75 percent of diabetics die of heart attack.
Dr Usama said insulin was not a medicine, but a hormone from pancreas that reduces glucose level in the blood. He said when insulin level decreases in the human body then it results in high blood glucose level that eventually causes diabetes. He stressed on the need for starting use of insulin to control diabetes well in time.
He said whenever we take food, glucose increases in the blood that makes insulin. However, in diabetes, production of insulin significantly reduces and causes serious issues. The main symptoms of diabetics include: increased thirst, frequent urination, weakness and fatigue, weight loss, swollen or bleeding gums, numbness in hands and feet, blurred vision, abdominal pains, nausea and vomiting, skin infections like abscess, pimples impotence, poor healing of skin wounds, inability to concentrate, and frequent headaches.
Dr Usama observed that exercise, heat, place of injection and quantity of insulin were a few factors that can affect required results of injection. "You should use new insulin syringe every time," he insisted. Dr Abdus Salam said that seven million people become victim of diabetes every year around the globe and 70 thousand children suffer from type-1 diabetes every year, adding that more than 7 million people in Pakistan are diabetes patients.
He said diabetes can badly affect eyes, brain, heart, kidneys and legs. It's one of the major causes of blindness and kidney failure. Dr Salam said need to urinate several times, feeling severe thrust, reducing weight and fatigue and weakness are important symptoms of this deadly disease. He, however, said that such indicators are usually missing in type-2 diabetes. Taking balanced diet, regular exercise, weight control, regular medication and proper test of blood glucose level are a few essential factors that can help control diabetes.
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