'Balanced diet, proper medication useful for treatment of diabetes'

Healthy and balance diet, regular physical activity and proper medication could be useful for treatment of diabetes. This was stated by Dr Asma Yawar, Diabetologist and Endocrinologist, Kidney Centre Post Graduate Training Institute in a press conference on 'World Diabetes Day' here on Saturday.
It is a common impression that insulin is only used by the diabetic patients at last stage is wrong because it is the first treatment, she added. She said insulin is the best treatment for those diabetic patients, who are also suffering with other liver and kidney diseases. She informed that South Asia is on the top of the world's position with highest number of diabetic patients.
She said there are two types of diabetes out of which type-1 diabetes could be seen in children while type-2 diabetes is common among adults and adolescents. There is another type of diabetes, which is gestational diabetes that may occur during pregnancy and raise the risk of getting diabetes later on in life, she said.
She said diabetes is a complex condition, which can result in long-term complications if it could not control properly. "Diabetes can cause heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, foot amputation and loss of vision," she maintained.
Speaking on the topic 'Diabetes and Your Kidneys' Professor Aasim Ahmad, Dean and Chief Nephrologist, Kidney Centre Post Graduate Training Institute said that 40 percent patients with diabetes later develop kidney diseases. Early detection of diabetes not only helps to overcome disease but also lower its future complications, he said.
He said the ratio of infectious diseases and non-infectious disease in developing economies like Pakistan has become equal while the developed countries had witnessed decline in infectious disease and increase in non-infectious disease. There are six stages of diabetes and if it is detected, it could be treated, he said.
Elaborating diabetic nephropathy, he said it is a kidney disease or damage that occurs as complication of diabetes. "In order to prevent damage to kidney, diabetic patients should optimise blood glucose, blood pressure level and regular check of sugar level and intake of sugar, fats and salt intake," he added.