Even more awareness needed to reverse daunting diabetes trend

Jan 07, 2018 News

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By Sharmain Grainger

Have you made your New Year’s resolution as yet? If you haven’t, hopefully after reading this article you will be nudged in that direction and it could be a life-saving move too.
By simply taking a blood sugar test and ensuring that it remains at a healthy level could be a start to a new and healthy life.
Some people may not see this as important for them, but with the increasing number of persons being diagnosed with diabetes, it most certainly is a tactical move if you are to avoid being among the statistics.
Reports suggest that with the increasing number of cases, Guyana can easily be considered the diabetes capital when the Caribbean territories are taken into consideration.
Currently about 19 percent of the population are living with diabetes. This would translate to just over 148,000 people if the 780,102 United Nations estimate for 2018 is used.
This state of affairs has been substantiated by President of the Guyana Diabetic Association [GDA], Ms. Glynis Beaton, who disclosed that “Every year, there are 7,000-plus new cases of diabetes, diagnosed in Guyana.”
In fact, she pointed out during a recent interview that while diabetes is not the leading cause of death in Guyana, it is certainly among the leading causes. Further, she said, it has even been contributing to some of the top leading causes of death such as heart diseases and kidney failure – all conditions that have been weighing heavily on the finances allocated to the health sector. Beaton is convinced that this dilemma is likely to continue if people do not take stock and try to safeguard themselves.
But education is the key to ensure that this approach is adopted by as many people as possible. This was particularly emphasised during a recent International Diabetic Federation [IDF] conference held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The conference spanned the period 2 – 8 December, 2017.
Beaton attended that conference not only in her capacity as President of the GDA, but also as the Chairperson for the Federation’s North America/Caribbean Region, inclusive of Mexico, a position to which she was elected during the past year.
At the conference in Abu Dhabi, Beaton was accompanied by five other Guyanese including two doctors from the Ministry of Public Health – Dr. Indira Bhoj and Dr. Kavita Singh; Ms. Claudette Thorne, Treasurer of the GDA; Keziah Nestor, President of the Young Leaders in Diabetes, the youth arm of the GDA, and Salome Dos Santos, Youth Leader of IDF.
The delegation secured funding from the Guyana Office for Investment, the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation and Ansa McAl, among others, to attend the significant IDF conference.

According to Beaton, among the high points of the confab were deliberations on the importance of diabetes awareness. “Promoting education…diabetes education can help to save many lives,” Beaton emphasised.
As such, her goal for this year is to work even closer with the Public Health Ministry through its Chronic Diseases Department with a view of bringing about more awareness to diabetes. This renewed effort is particularly important, Beaton noted, because of the increasing number of cases being recorded.
Taking the lead in this regard comes naturally to Beaton, because she understands all too well the intricacies of diabetes, as she has been living with it for many years. In fact, her father and his father before him have all battled challenges associated with diabetes.
As part of her mission to ensure that more people are knowledgeable about the disease, Beaton has been helping to spread the word through national outreaches spearheaded by the Association. She is poised to do even more not only for the Region she represents, but for Guyana especially, from her even bigger platform at the IDF.
According to Beaton, she anticipates being able to bring to fruition strategic projects that can help improve the response to diabetes.
“You can be a walking sugar bag and not know it,” she said of persons who haven’t sought to know their blood sugar level. For this very reason, she said, “We have to do so much more to bring awareness to our people.”
For those who are diabetic, she explained, it is especially important that they learn to manage themselves properly. But some people, especially those of the young generation, she noted, may see this as a great task. Beaton can relate to this because she too was relatively young when she was diagnosed with the disease and, at times, was not compliant.
She has over time recognized that taking charge could be as simple as “getting to understand from your body weight how much you should be consuming per day and when should be your heaviest meal. Your size and proportion is very important…that can help you to deal effectively with diabetes and over time it will become normal for you.”
While some people are worried that once they are diagnosed with diabetes there are foods that they would have to eliminate altogether, Beaton made it clear that “there is nothing that you can’t eat, but there are foods that you can’t eat in abundance.” In fact she pointed out even if people aren’t diabetic, they should refrain from eating any food in abundance, even fruits, as these could cause some harm.
An important tactic, Beaton advised, is to “learn to count your carbohydrates and calories before consuming food.”
But the work does not end by taking awareness to the diabetic patients. According to Beaton, “we also have to work on educating our physicians. Diabetes every day is changing, so we have to educate our physicians on how the various types of insulin work, so that they work better with patients.”
Even as she emphasised the need for more of our doctors to be exposed to diabetes care and management, Beaton spoke of being ready to work closely with experts within the Public Health Ministry to conduct a research to better understand the diabetes situation in Guyana.
In fact, she disclosed that “we have various things in Guyana that we can use with management. For example, the foods that we eat that are not high glycemic – those that will not bring a rush of blood sugar – and that patients can use to manage their diabetes better.”
Without proper management, Beaton noted that diabetes complications could extend to just about every part of the body including the feet, eyes, nervous system, the lungs and even the pancreas.
Given its far-reaching impact, she underscored that “we need to be more vocal on diabetes.” This is especially in light of her understanding that if the complications of diabetes are not urgently addressed; it could potentially cause any country to become bankrupt.
“Some people develop heart conditions and worse yet, kidney problems…and taking dialysis to address kidney failure is very, very expensive, and we aren’t even talking about the cost of transplants for these conditions,” Beaton asserted.
According to her, it must be recognized that combating diabetes requires a team-approach including the patient’s willingness to make certain lifestyle changes, such as including exercise and proper diet, together with the support of the health workers.
She is convinced that Guyana could be well poised to stand up against diabetes if more strategic collaborations are forged.
“Added to the things we have been doing, we have to do even more and not become complacent,” stressed Beaton.
Coming out of the IDF conference, moves will also be made to recruit even more persons to aid the process of educating the nation. This, according to Beaton, will see a two-day lay-educator training programme in February for board members of the GDA and community members, who will be exposed to a simplified version of diabetes material, so that they can help take awareness to the public on a wider scale.

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