Dr. Ogugua Osi-Ogbu, a Consultant Physician Geriatrician at the National Hospital, said lifestyle modification was paramount in the management of diabetes, especially in aged people.
Osi-Ogbu said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Abuja.
According to her, diabetes is a multi-systemic disease that is not curable, but highly controllable and dependent on discipline on the part of the person diagnosed of the condition.
Diabetes is a common chronic condition where the body cannot convert enough blood sugar (glucose) into usable energy.
Osi-Ogbu said maintaining the lifestyle recommended by a physician was one of the best ways of managing the condition.
She said: “The management of diabetes involves a lot of education for the patients and their care givers, particularly on eating habits like qualitative food such as fruits, vegetables and less of starch.
“Lifestyle modification such as dieting is indeed a big part of the management of diabetes in all patients.
“We rather recommend complex starches like yam, potatoes which goes through a break down process compared to drinking a bottle of coke which the sugar goes quickly into the blood stream.”
Osi-Ogbu said the elderly were at a higher risk of developing diabetes and hypertension due to their aging process than the younger ones.
She said the pancreas of older people that produces insulin required for breakdown of sugar could not produce as much quantity compared to when they were younger.
She said diabetic patients were susceptible to developing conditions such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure, kidney failure and other conditions that affect the entire system because of the effect on the blood vessels.
Osi-Ogbu described diabetes as a metabolic condition that could result from a reduction of the insulin level in the blood.
She said excessive blood glucose in diabetic patients produced symptoms like frequent urination, excessive, weight loss, thirst and hunger.
She recommended regular exercise, particularly a minimum of 150 minutes of quick pace walk every week, or an equivalence of a minimum of 30 minutes five times a week to contain the condition.
She advised those susceptible to diabetes to avoid excessive alcohol intake and abstinence from smoking.
The expert said complications from diabetes included blindness, kidney failure, limb amputation, heart attacks and strokes.
Osi-Ogbu however noted that Type 1 diabetes was more common in children, saying that the body immune system gradually destructs insulin producing cells of the pancreas with symptoms as extreme thirst, blurred vision, and infections, among others.
She added that Type 2 was predominantly a lifestyle disorder and was highly associated with obesity, lack of exercise, unhealthy diet or due to family history.
NAN.
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