Yesterday marked World Diabetes Day, and on the occasion, the Health Ministry has launched a National Strategy to prevent the disease and has now put it for public consultation.
The numbers are quite shocking. One in four Maltese over the age of 65 suffers from the disease and ensuing complications.
The key to preventing diabetes is a healthy lifestyle and diet. After years of cosuming pile upon pile of carbohydrates and sugars in sweets, soft drinks and alcohol, the blood sugar levels begin to rise as the body can no longer control the chemicals inside it. Diet is imperative in controlling diabetes, and in fact, if one were to follow a Mediterranean diet (which Maltese people have only begun to do recently) the risk of developing diabetes is cut by 20 %
However, in a world where pre packaged and additive packed foods are the norm, dangers are ever present, especially in the case of children. Malta has one of the highest incidences of childhood obesity in the world, and if something is not done about it now, we could see diabetes levels spike in the not too distant future as our lives become more sedentary and our massive overload of sugars continues.
While diet is extremely important, physical exercise is also essential. Dieting alone is not enough to maintain a healthy body and mind.
By the year 2050, obesity and its side effects will overtake smoking as the prime cause of death in Europe. And if we carry on the way we are, things will only happen quicker.
Diabetes cannot be solved by the health system alone. The whole of society and whole of government approach should underpin effective strategies to prevent the onset of risk factors related to diabetes and to improve the health outcomes of diabetes.
There are various screening programmes, but at the end of the day, it is the individual who must seek diagnosis and subsequent treatment for the disease. As usual, it is men rather than women who are more reticent to get a simple blood test. But even so, there are still cases that go under the radar and remain untreated until the patients complications are very severe. Even with treatment, however, the key remains to be a carefully tailored diet that is drafted by a nutrition specialist that the patient must stick to.
While diabetes is often self induced, there are also cases where young children are affected, because it is a condition that they develop unrelated to their diet. This is where parents need to be informed and vigilant for any signals such as consumption of huge quantities of water as well as seizures.