About World Health Day On April 7th last year the theme of World Health Day was Diabetes. This year’s theme was one to which diabetes is linked because this disorder can affect decision-making abilities, memory and self-management. This disease can make persons unable to function effectively or to participate in family or community life. Indeed, depression can also contribute to diabetes and the presence of one … Continue reading World Health Day 2017

  Happy World Diabetes Day!! World Diabetes Day is recognised internationally on November 14th with the aim of raising diabetes awareness. The theme for World Diabetes Day 2016 is ‘Eyes on Diabetes’. The IDF message for this year is promotion of screening for diabetes and for complications of diabetes. In 2015 IDF noted that 1 in every 11 adults worldwide has diabetes, totalling 415 million, … Continue reading WORLD DIABETES DAY!!

Diabetes currently has no cure. If there was a permanent cure for diabetes, physicians would retrieve it from the ends of the earth for their clients, urging governments to mobilise, to seek charitable donations to take it to third world countries. If there was a magic herb, supplement or probiotic pill that was tested and proved, there would be nothing that physicians would not do … Continue reading Update on the Diabetes Cure

Diabetes was rare before the twentieth century.  Management of Diabetes started with severe caloric restriction for mere survival of patients with type 1 diabetes. Banting and Best, Mc Cleod and Collip, discovered and purified insulin from the canine pancreas.  In 1935 diabetes with insulin resistance was distinguished from type 1 diabetes. Longer acting insulins were marketed from the 1930s while the first generation of sulphonylureas … Continue reading Diabetes in the Twentieth Century

Between the ages of 7 and 8 James Quander was told the only thing he was born to do was to die. However, he lived longer than persons who had diabetes were expected to. Mr. Quander was born in 1918 and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just before he turned 6 in 1924, shortly after insulin was introduced to the market. James Quander was a black American … Continue reading PWD Pt2

After the diagnosis of diabetes, there are a few diabetes-related tools that you will either have to purchase or have access to. I recommend buying a glucose meter, but before you do this, be sure you have access to the meter test strips; because this is the real source of expense. You need to check your blood glucose readings several times per day, if your blood glucose is … Continue reading Diabetes and Management tools

A person’s personality may or may not be modifiable, but an understanding of the relationship between an aspect of personality and adherence to diabetes management plan is quite useful.  This can allow modifications to education, counselling methods and behavioural therapy. More than one study use a measure called the NEO Personality Inventory with personality dimensions such as neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness, openness to experience, and the respective … Continue reading Diabetes and Personality

Diabetes occurs more frequently with advancing age, especially for persons who become more sedentary with age. There is an increase in fatty tissue and a decrease in muscle mass with age, which accompanies a decrease in physical activity. The elderly person with diabetes may be affected by other illnesses, known as comorbidities and the use of many medications, known as poly-pharmacy. Hypoglycaemia may occur more … Continue reading Diabetes and the Elderly

Diabetes and Children The diagnosis of diabetes at a young age is particularly difficult for the child or adolescent and for his or her family. In most cases the diagnosis is type 1 diabetes; but increasingly type 2 diabetes is being diagnosed with a link to childhood obesity. The symptoms are similarly: Increase thirst Hunger Urination Fatigue weight loss Blurred vision or even yeast infections in young … Continue reading Diabetes and Children

(As seen in Business Focus March/April 2015 p100) The seasons of gift exchange and indulgences, affection and revelry, gave way to the tax season, which may have caused some distress; financial or otherwise. Stress is defined in Psychology as a person’s response to an external stimulus that may be positive or negative. Eustress has been defined as a positive motivator or challenge that keeps a … Continue reading Diabetes and Stress

There is no stigma when we are all in the same situation and the exception is rapidly becoming good health. Diabetes does not have to define you but if it must, use it for good.. Leonard Thompson, at age 14, was the first person injected with insulin in 1922 and this prevented his imminent death. At the time, insulin was a hormone isolated from the … Continue reading Persons With Diabetes (PWD)

The benefits of exercise: 30 minutes a day with an increased heart rate of 60-80% of maximal peak heart rate. reduces the risk  of heart attack and stroke. improves the body’s use of insulin can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes increases HDL cholesterol improves hypertension causes weight loss improves function if you have peripheral arterial disease. lowers the risk of certain cancers including breast … Continue reading Diabetes and Exercise

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for diabetes, respiratory disease, strokes and heart disease. One in ten persons smoke; the prevalence of smoking among persons with diabetes is not significantly different compared to the general population. Non-smokers live an average of eight to ten years longer than smokers with diabetes, mostly due to heart disease. Smoking may decrease overall body weight but increases obesity around the abdomen … Continue reading Diabetes and Smoking