Page 46 - NAMAH-Jul-2025

Namah Perspective

Introduction them though eventually all options merge
into a therapeutic intervention which likely
A worldwide study of Diabetes in 2021 produces a range of side effects. In more
concluded that India held the most diabetics recent times, it is well known that Diabetes is
worldwide following just behind China, actually a reversible condition if caught in its
with Pakistan not far behind. With sweets tracks soon enough with ’lifestyle measures’
being given at every occasion in our culture, as the doctors like to say. Many patients
one wonders if occasions are an excuse for have reversed diabetes through exercise
sweets or excuses merely created to distribute measures, diet-control and weight- loss, as all
sweets. Embedded in our culture of taking these factors control the quantity of glucose
a bag of sweets when going to a relative or being input into the system at a given time
guest’s house, be it Diwali, Pongal and the as well as finding methods to use more of it.
arrays of celebrations, sweets have now even The insulin regimes, pumps and all the rest
made it through the hospital door bringing a have allowed patients to gain more of a strict
dose of happiness(!) from visitors to patients! control and surveillance, further contributing
Asking an Indian diabetic to cut out sweets is to the taming of the problem.
one thing, but forcing them to cut out staple
pieces off their dinner plate such as rice as However, the majority of patients are
part of their diabetic control may not be forced to the cliché method of therapeutic
having the effects propagandised from the intervention, alongside a few lifestyle
Western world of medicine. changes. The availability of diabetic drugs
appears to provide patients a safety-net
Diabetes — what is it? to continue eating what they wish and
just up the dose of Metformin or Insulin
Let us first take a whistle-stop tour on the a few notches and call it a day. Even if
evidence base behind strict diabetic control they make the aforementioned lifestyle
before exploring the potential missing pieces changes, it works short-term before they
of the puzzle. Broadly speaking, Type-2 relapse and, given the Indian culture of
diabetes is a condition by which the body the temptation being at every corner, one
becomes resistant to its own production of can imagine how difficult this is.
Insulin; a core hormone involved in regulating
glucose levels in the blood. As glucose builds Now let us examine the problem. Cortisol is
up in the blood, it causes higher viscosity another hormone, and this fellow seems to
of the blood, makes the nerves imminently be quite ignored when speaking of diabetes.
susceptible to damage, and in severe cases Stress induces more cortisol production and
excessively high glucose can be fatal. worsens diabetic control in numerous studies
undertaken in renowned institutes. This is
Medical control or medical safety? the first piece of the puzzle we will look at.

Now, with the rainbow of medications and Beyond the sweet tooth
therapeutic interventions for diabetes, patients
are told they have many options available to In the British and European diets, there are

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