World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day is observed annually on 14th November every year by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The main aim of this awareness day is to create public awareness of the causes, prevention, diagnosis, management, and treatment of diabetes. Every year, the theme for World Diabetes Day is designed to focus on ways to reduce the burden of diabetes among millions of people living across the world. The theme for World Diabetes Day 2018 and 2019 is 'The Family and Diabetes.'

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Key Objectives of the Campaign

The primary objectives of the campaign are -

• To raise awareness of the impact that diabetes has on the family and support those who are already affected and those who are at risk of developing diabetes
• To reduce the number of diseases and deaths caused by diabetes
• To promote the role of the family in the management, care, prevention, and education of diabetes
• To motivate people to follow a healthy diet and participate in some regular physical activity
• To educate physicians, pharmacists, health professionals and the public about the prevalence, risk factors, and causes of diabetes
• To encourage each member of the family to engage in healthy lifestyle changes to reduce the burden of diabetes

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Need for Celebrating World Diabetes Day

Diabetes has become a modern epidemic, as the prevalence of diabetes is increasing across the globe. Diabetes is an umbrella that covers a wide range of conditions such as diabetes mellitus, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, diabetes insipidus, and gestational diabetes. As we know diabetes is a family disease, a person can inherit diabetes, if his/her parent or grandparents have diabetes.

With today’s busy life, only a few people have time to prepare regular, well-balanced meals. Others opt for quick, high-calorie, sugary foods that are widely available outside in fast foods and restaurants, especially youngsters are not including foods such as fruits and vegetables, lean meats and whole grains in their daily diet, which are mainly required to provide the essential nutrition to lead a healthy lifestyle. People run behind various unhealthy food choices that lack several nutrients and only add extra empty calories, thereby leading to diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure (hypertension).

Most Indians develop diabetes at an early age. The number of adults and teens with diabetes in the UK has doubled over the past 20 years, with 3.7 million people aged 17 or older are now known to be living with the disease, say campaigners. All these factors urge the International Diabetes Federation, in collaboration with the WHO, to spread the important news about diabetes and highlight the main risk factors to the public worldwide on this World diabetes day.

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Main Reason for Raising Sound Alarm over Diabetes

• Diabetes is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, and lower limb amputation
• Globally, more than 425 million people are currently living with diabetes
• Nearly 1 in 2 people living with diabetes are undiagnosed
• The number of people with diabetes is expected to soar up to 522 million by 2030
• More than 1 in 3 Americans have prediabetes
• Around 7.2 million Americans are not aware that they have diabetes
• Nearly 3.7 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes in the UK
• Over 12.3 million people are at higher risk of type 2 diabetes
• Around 79 percent of adults with diabetes are living in low-income and middle-income countries
• Diabetes caused nearly 4 million deaths in 2017
• Over 1,106,500 children are living with type 1 diabetes
• More than 21 million live births (i.e., 1 in 7 births) were affected by diabetes during pregnancy in the year 2017
• India currently represents 49 percent of the world’s diabetes burden
• Tamil Nadu had the highest death rate from diabetes among Indian states, followed by Punjab and Karnataka

Why is Diabetes on the Rise among Indians?

India already holds the highest number of diabetic individuals in the world. Sadly, most Indians develop diabetes at an earlier age, i.e. between 30's and 40's and develop severe diabetes complications in their prime of life.

The most common reasons for the incidence of diabetes in India are rapid urbanization of our society and a change in our day-to-day activities and lifestyles. Obesity, especially the type of weight gain which occurs around the waist, a diet rich in fats and refined cereals, lack of physical activity and high levels of stress are all mounting the risk for developing diabetes.

Why do Diabetic People Need the Help and Support of their Family?

Living with diabetes is not very easy, and unfortunately, once developed it does not go away. This urges most diabetics to make some serious lifestyle changes in order to manage diabetes successfully. Patients with diabetics, especially youngsters may face numerous complications and may also be more prone to depression and stress.

Learning and understanding how to monitor and control blood glucose levels can take time, and the threat for other serious health problems associated with diabetes keeps on mounting gradually. For this main reason, a person who has diabetes may need the help and support of their family to manage blood sugar fluctuations.

People with diabetes need to be aware of their diet. If a person in the family understands the importance of having a healthy diabetic diet, it could be much easier to communicate with other family members. Exercise is another vital part of diabetes management. Families can make exercising easier by agreeing to exercise together.

Simple 3 Ways to Reduce the Burden of Diabetes in Your Family

• Discover Diabetes - Identifying diabetes early involves the family too. Therefore, detecting the disease at an early stage can help offer effective treatment in preventing or delaying life-threatening complications. If not detected early, type 1 diabetes can lead to severe disability or even death. So, make sure that you know the signs and symptoms to protect yourself and your family from diabetes.
• Prevent Diabetes - Diabetes can be prevented by adopting healthy eating habits, maintaining a healthy body weight and engaging in a regular physical activity. Reducing your family’s diabetes risk starts at home. Therefore, when a family eats a healthy balanced diet and exercises together, all the family members are benefited. Families need to live in an environment, which supports healthy lifestyle, so as to protect themselves against diabetes.
• Manage Diabetes - Diabetes can drive families into poverty. Managing diabetes demands daily treatment, continuous monitoring, healthy lifestyle, and constant learning. Family support is very important. All health care professionals should share adequate knowledge and skills to help individuals and families to manage diabetes. Training and ongoing support should be accessible to all individuals and families to handle diabetes with care. Essential diabetes medicines and care must be available and affordable for every family.

The burden of diabetes is mounting around the world. In order to save millions of lives, it is necessary to follow certain lifestyle and dietary modifications that could help people with diabetes manage the spikes and drops in their blood sugar levels. So, let us join together and make a giant leap to protect our family and loved ones from diabetes to live a happy and healthy life.

References:

1. World Diabetes Day 2018-19 - (https://www.idf.org/e-library/epidemiology-research/54-our-activities/455-world-diabetes-day-2018-19.html)
2. Diabetes and the Family - (https://www.diabetes.co.uk/Diabetes-and-the-family.html)
3. Diabetes Concerns Every Family - (https://www.worlddiabetesday.org/)
4. About Diabetes - (https://www.idf.org/aboutdiabetes/what-is-diabetes/facts-figures.html)

Source-Medindia