By Chipo Majuta.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of the South ) –
Living under seemingly harsh conditions and braving what can be viewed as punishing environment, our grandfathers and grandmothers had the secret why they lived longer than our generation.
By travelling at least 10km a day and sometimes chasing bucks in the bushes speak volumes as to why they kept their bodies fit and strong which elongated their lives and made them immune to various diseases. The traditional food including sorghum, rapoko and wild fruits made them healthier.
Now that people are deviating from what our fathers used to eat and resort to eating genetically modified food and other unrefined ones saw a legion of diseases taking heavy toll on our generation among them diabetes thereby tremendously reducing life expectancy to 40 years.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that can cause many serious complications. If left unchecked, high blood sugar levels can cause a lot of problems on your body. Interestingly, managing diabetes can help keep these and other potential complications and comorbidities of diabetes at bay.
The recently held workshop on diabetes in Harare which was aimed at training doctors and nurses on the disease has successfully imparted knowledge and understanding as far as measures of preventing and coping with diabetes are concerned. Participants were taught to view people with diabetes as individuals and facilitate self-management of overall health and risk factors rather than purely treating glucose levels.
In attendance was a man who lived with diabetes for 51 years His name was Stephen. Ironically the man looked healthy, strong and fit. Unperturbed by his condition, the man displayed some virility and eagerness to harmer home pertinent message that diabetes is not a disease but it is just a condition and as such diabetics should not regard themselves as sick people. For Stephen, learning that he had type 2 diabetes set his healthy lifestyle in motion. After his October 1965 diagnosis, Stephen, the General Manager with a local Zimbabwean company, vowed to reduce his risk for diabetes complications.
“It required me to be an active patient,” he says. “I began to take great care of myself with the help of my doctor.” So Stephen started reading medical journals and he stopped eating refined grains, opting for “super foods” like vegetables and traditional foods.
“When I read what type 2 diabetes could do to you and that I clearly had it, my goal was to try managing it so that it cannot get out of hand,” he says. Now, he says, eating right is part of who he is. Stephen is now managing his diabetes with diet and exercise alone, but he continues to test his blood glucose multiple times a day. His goal is to have diabetes impact his chances for complications no more than a non-diabetic.
Health Advisor to the President and Cabinet and Patron of Zimbabwe Diabetes Association Dr Timothy Stamps while speaking at recently held workshop in Harare said it is imperative that all patients have access to affordable treatment and effective disease management and awareness adding that there is need for practical, holistic and person centered management of diabetes.
“Diabetes represents the ultimate patient experience of a chronic health condition and guidelines on the management of diabetes abound globally but poor implementation remains a norm”, he explained.
Speaking at the same occasion, Zimbabwe Diabetes Association President Dr Chamunorwa Mangwiro said Zimbabwe’s economic woes have compounded difficulties as far as access to medication is concerned hence diabetics are on hard times but hinted that the association is engaging international companies to reduce the cost of medication for diabetes so that an ordinary person will get access to effective treatment. However the veteran medical practitioner was quick to remind people to eat traditional foods such as sorghum, millet and rapoko as well as taking unrefined drinks, more vegetables and doing a lot of exercises so as to control the disease.
“We are talking to international companies so that they reduce the cost of diabetes medication and make it accessible in Zimbabwe by every patient but the most important thing is people should take care of themselves by eating nutritious food and go back to traditional foods so as to reduce diabetes”, he said.
Diabetes affects all people young and old, family and community but the good news is that type 2 diabetes is largely preventable. About 9 cases in 10 could be avoided by taking several simple steps which include among others keeping weight under control, exercising more, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking.
Our cells depend on a single simple sugar, glucose, for most of their energy needs. That’s why the body has intricate mechanisms in place to make sure glucose levels in the bloodstream don’t go too low or soar too high.
When you eat, most digestible carbohydrates are converted into glucose and rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. Any rise in blood sugar signals the pancreas to make and release insulin. This hormone instructs cells to sponge up glucose. Without it, glucose floats around the bloodstream, unable to slip inside the cells that need it.
Diabetes occurs when the body can’t make enough insulin or can’t properly use the insulin it makes.
One form of diabetes occurs when the immune system attacks and permanently disables the insulin-making cells in the pancreas. This is type 1 diabetes, once called juvenile-onset, or insulin-dependent, diabetes. Roughly 5 to 10 percent of diagnosed diabetes cases are type 1 diabetes.
Our major disadvantages that led to skyrocketing of diabetes cases in Zimbabwe include among others lack of understanding, lack of education on the diabetes, lack of exercises and the mushrooming of unrefined foods and other genetically modified ones as well as departure from our traditional foods. 95% percent of diabetes is caused by poor nutrition.
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