People urged to start walking daily, adopt healthy diet to avoid getting diabetes

Diabetologists have urged the people to keep their weight in check through regular exercise and balanced diet, saying that sedentary lifestyle, obesity or being overweight and eating unhealthy and unbalanced diet are the biggest reasons for the growing incidence of the disease in Pakistan.

Speaking at an awareness session organised by Dr Essa Laboratory and Diagnostic Centre in collaboration with the Health Committee of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Wednesday, they said as many as 26 per cent of the people were diabetic in Pakistan while around 14 per cent were going to be diabetes in later stages of their lives due to their poor lifestyle.

They warned that people were losing their limbs and organs, including eyes and kidneys, due to diabetes while the irreversible disease was also causing cardiac ailments among very young people.

Experts suggested that men and women should walk at least for 30 to 45 minutes in a day and make it a regular habit, while children should also be encouraged to do exercise to remain fit and healthy, warning that no cure of diabetes had so far been discovered anywhere in the world.

In addition to awareness session, a diabetes screening camp was also held at the KPC premises, during which over 150 KPC members were screened for fasting and random blood sugar and were given consultation on management of their disease through diet control and lifestyle modification.

According to the results of the diabetes screening, around 35 per cent members were found diabetic, of which 20 per cent were known diabetics while remaining were found to be newly diagnosed diabetics, who were asked to consult their physicians for the management of their health condition.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nayyer Jabeen from Dr Essa Lab said diabetes had become a major health concern in Pakistan because every fourth person was diabetic, but unfortunately the majority were unaware of their health condition for years and when they approached physicians, they started facing complications of the disease.

Dr Jabeen said diabetes was major cause of amputations among people because it created numbness in the body and this process started from the feet. Those having diabetics even don’t feel cardiac pain and often they die without feeling any pain in the chest, she added.

She said Pakistanis were most prone to diabetes due to their genetic makeup while unbalanced diet and lack of exercise in the daily life were some of the other factors, but people could avoid or manage diabetes through diet control and regular exercise.

Another diabetologist Dr Zafar Abbasi from the Baqai Institute of Diabetology (BIDE) said Pakistani men and women above the age of 40, with waist circumference of 35 inches or above and having family history of diabetes were either diabetics or they were soon going to have the irreversible disease.

“What they can do is to eat less and walk more. While eating, they should focus less on Roti and Chawal and concentrate more on pulses, white meat, vegetables and fibrous fruits and walk for an hour in a day to avoid or manage diabetes,” he added.

CEO of Dr Essa Laboratories Dr Farhan Essa said they held the screening camp and awareness session as part of their social responsibility to eliminate disease from the society. He said the KPC was the best place to spread awareness about preventable diseases. He announced the holding of regular screening camps and awareness sessions for the KPC members so that through them word of advice could reach to a larger audience. KPC Secretary Maqsood Yousufi thanked the Dr Essa Laboratories staff and Dr Farhan Essa and hoped that their efforts in collaboration with the KPC would help people in improving their health.