By Chioma Obinna

To mark this year’s World Diabetes Day, a Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist at the Evercare Hospital; Lagos, Dr. Chinyere Udo has said that lifestyle changes can help prevent prediabetes,

Prediabetes is a condition in which the blood glucose is higher than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetes.  Prediabetes typically has no symptoms, but long-term diabetes-related complications can occur even in The Consultant Physician who sheds light on the disease condition during an enlightenment/ free screening activity organised by the Evercare hospital for residents in their immediate community as part of their CSR  said people with prediabetes have a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes adding that, prediabetes presents a unique opportunity to prevent diabetes by initiating lifestyle changes.

She said lifestyle changes are a progression to prevent diabetes and improve quality of life.

 “Some of these choices include getting active, losing excess weight, healthy diet, reducing fat intake, limiting all alcohol intake to less than one drink/day, quitting smoking and using medication when needed.”

She said the essence of world diabetes day was to create awareness of diabetes mellitus among healthcare workers, people living with the condition, their families and the community, adding that, the campaign underscores the fact that diabetes is everyone’s business and affects everyone one way, or another.

“Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disorder that occurs when the body either cannot produce sufficient insulin or is unable to effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas which allows the body’s cells to utilise or store glucose produced from digestion of food.

 “Deficiency of this hormone, results in persistently elevated blood glucose levels, the hallmark of diabetes. Diabetes, when poorly controlled, is associated with severe complications leading to limitations in the quality of life or death. Diabetes complications include increased susceptibility to infections, heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputations.

While diabetes may affect anyone, certain persons – obese persons, individuals with a sedentary lifestyle, those with a family history of diabetes and women with a history of giving birth to large babies – have a higher risk.”

 She listed the different forms of diabetes including Type 1 diabetes and thus is the more frequent type in childhood, although it can occur at any age and Type 2 diabetes which is by far the most common type, accounting for over 90 per cent of diabetes cases worldwide.

Globally, the prevalence of diabetes has continued to rise in unprecedented leaps. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that worldwide, 537 million adults (age 20-79 years) are living with diabetes. This is projected to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045. This growing pandemic is worse in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. To make matters worse, one in two adults with diabetes in this region is undiagnosed. While this is a grim statistic, it is noteworthy that even more people- an estimated 541 million adults- have prediabetes. This makes diabetes just the tip of this looming iceberg.