Expressing concern over the growing number of people living with diabetes in Pakistan, legendary fast bowler Waseem Akram on Saturday said that if the country wants to remain a healthy and sporting nation, people would have to change their lifestyles, and prevent themselves and their children from becoming obese and overweight.
“I have come to know that Pakistan has become the third leading country with the highest number of diabetics in the world, and it is a serious cause of concern,” Akram said while addressing the National Association of Diabetes Educators of Pakistan (Nadep) Diabetes Footcon 2021 in Karachi.
“If we want to survive as a nation and continue to perform as a healthy, sporting nation, we would have to change our lifestyles, exercise daily and get rid of unhealthy food.”
Dozens of national and international experts, including endocrinologists, diabetologists and internal medicine experts, as well as officials from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other organisations are attending the two-day conference, with focus on the prevention of amputations due to diabetes.
Akram, who is the brand ambassador of The Health Bank (THB), visited the THB stall at the conference and said he was using the services of the tech-enabled global health management company to monitor his health, especially his diabetes status.
He added that they have also gotten his genome mapping done to ascertain which food is suitable for him and how he should live a normal life despite having diabetes for the past 24 years. Urging parents to prevent their children from becoming obese and overweight, he said parents would have to become role models for their children by adopting the habit of waking up and sleeping early, exercising daily, eating less, and avoiding junk and unhealthy food, which is making them fat and causing diabetes.
He maintained that most of the people in Pakistan are still unaware of what causes diabetes, and urged the electronic media to promote healthy habits and balanced food intake.
Akram said that in a country with over 30 million diabetics, people need to know everything about diabetes and how they should manage it to save their next generations from becoming diabetics.
Dr Zulfiqarali G Abbas, a renowned diabetic foot specialist from Tanzania, said in his talk that diabetes damages the nerves in the feet of the patients within five to seven years of the onset of the disease if it remains uncontrolled.
He said that even a minor injury or infection can lead to the amputation of the affected foot or leg if trained and qualified physicians are not consulted timely.
“Unfortunately, people in both Pakistan and my home country Tanzania try home remedies, approach quacks, hakeems and faith healers for treatment, but when the situation gets worse, they approach a diabetologist. But often they are so late that the doctors decide to amputate their foot to save their lives.”
Dr Abbas, who had studied medicine at the Sindh Medical College Karachi and gone back to Tanzania to serve his people, maintained that due to diabetes, foot wounds get infected and are not easy to heal, and these unhealed wounds lead to the amputation of the foot, having the patients living a miserable life afterwards.
“If you are a diabetic, take good care of your feet. Keep your blood sugar in control. In case of any loss of sensation in either or both feet, see a qualified doctor. Don’t delay seeing a doctor, or you or your loved one would lose his or her foot,” he warned.
Leading health expert Prof Ejaz Vohra called for creating awareness about changing lifestyle in Pakistan to contain the epidemic of diabetes, and urged people to change their unhealthy dietary habits, include exercise in their daily lives and take precautionary measures to prevent themselves from type II or lifestyle diabetes, which he termed “the mother of most illnesses”.
He maintained that millions of Pakistanis are pre-diabetics or are likely to have diabetes sooner or later in their lives, but they can live happy and healthy lives by educating themselves, learning about their health condition, changing their way of living, and adopting simple and healthy lifestyles.
Other speakers, including Dr Asim Bin Zafar, Irum Ghafoor and Dr Zafar Abbasi, said that millions of people are living with diabetes in the world, but many of them are living almost normal lives, like those who do not have diabetes, by acquiring self-management education and changing their lifestyles.
They said that lifestyle modification is the best medicine and approach in the management of diabetes, and the good thing is that it is absolutely free and costs nothing. The only thing required is constant education and awareness, which is helping millions around the globe to deal with diabetes effectively, they added.
Prof Abdul Basit, Nadep President Dr Saif-ul-Haq, Dr Yusuf Kamal, Dr Feroz Memon, Dr Musarrat Riaz, Dr Zahid Miyan, Dr Eric Senneville, Dr Jamil Halabi, Dr Farhatullah, Dr Riaz Ahmed Memon, Dr Zahid Miyan and others also spoke on the occasion.
