Can we send diabetes on a day out

By watedroplet

 Theme: Diabetic-friendly daily routine

I had been enjoying Blogchatter year-round engaging events, but this year I could not write on my favourite contests because of my busy schedule. I am also highly obliged to the Blogchatter team, who had made the communications so easy and accessible that we will not miss any. Landing on this topic is one such blessing from the team.

When I got this topic, I was super excited because the whole year I have not written anything. Secondly, I have a family member who has diabetes. Thirdly, I myself show signs of prediabetes, and fourthly, I have recently come across some good content about this disease which I would like to share with you all. 

A couple of years back, I was chatting with my friend on the phone, where she was narrating a section of her conversation with her friend. Let me name my friend as A and the other person as B.

A: Hey buddy, what's up? You look so sick.

B: (With a lingering head) What to say, I just now recovered from TB.

A: (Punningly) Common man, what you all are still suffering with is "garibo-wali bemari" (poor people's disease). Have a class. Have something like an acquired lifestyle disease. 

This was how she introduced to us the diseased condition. Indeed, tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that is most prevalent among those with low socio-economic status (read here).

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder, which means that it affects a person's metabolism. In other words, it impacts the mechanism with which a person draws energy from their food. 


Let me draw your attention to this. I am producing statistics from the national diabetes statistics report

The data talks about U.S. adults ages 18 years or older, around 97.6 million, i.e., more than 1 in 3 people had prediabetes in 2021. The statistics show that 

32.8 million adults ages 18 to 44 years old 

37.5 million adults ages 45 to 64 years old

27.2 million adults ages 65 or older

Though diabetes can affect anybody, type 2 diabetes is most common among middle-aged and older adults. Something that our above date is also saying (also read). Before I go further, I would introduce you all to various types of diabetes.

a) Type 1 diabetes: In this type of diabetes the body is either making very little or no insulin. It is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system considers its own healthy cells as dangerous and starts destroying them, which leads to a lack of insulin in the body.

b) Type 2 diabetes: In this type of diabetes your body is producing insulin, but the body is not able to use it properly to regulate its sugar levels. This is a manageable condition with lifestyle changes (which I will talk about a little later), physical activity (which I will talk about), medications and regular blood glucose monitoring. 

c) Gestational diabetes: Gestational diabetes is that condition in which high blood sugar in the blood is recorded during pregnancy. 

Apart from these, there are a few more which we might discuss in some other post. 

Moving further, as nowadays the topic of discussion remains diabetes, our institute organised two programmes on nutrition and managing your lifestyle for a healthier life. Here the speakers asked one crucial question: What do you mean by lifestyle?

We all say lifestyle changes; what is this lifestyle? I was like, 'Ah...' This question and today's topic made me to seek an answer to this. One site describes lifestyle as "a characteristic way of life of an individual, family, culture, and social group". It is a way of life we establish as a society, culture, group, or individual. In other words, we are the writer of our lifestyles.  

     If we travel back in time and try to see how our ancestors lived. They used to get up quite early and go to fields and work for the whole day. They used to take very short breaks. Tired, they returned home. The ladies of the family cooked the meal by late evening, and they take meals early and go to sleep. There were no sleep disturbances and no other issues. There was no sign of diabetes or anything like that. All because of lifestyle. 

Today when I see myself, I hardly get up from my chair in the office, but I eat the same way I had been eating 10 years back. This is where my lifestyle change has negatively started impacting me. So what I did.

1. Nutrition

Firstly, I took care of my nutrition. Now, my job is mostly sedentary, but my hunger remains the same. I feel hungry. My doctor advised me to add more proteins so that I eat fewer carbohydrates. So, I started putting a variety of pulses in my meals. In my morning breakfast, I always carry a cup of pulses (like green moong dal, rajama, chickpea, black chana, etc.), one egg each day and chappati. At tea time, I prefer taking fruits and salads; this keeps me stuffed till lunchtime. At noon, I take chappati and vegetables. At night I take two chappatis and pulses. 

2. Physical activity

But just focusing on my nutrition was not helping me a lot. My body was not showing improvement. I started thinking about what I am missing out on. I found that my life is so busy. I do not get time to do exercise. Physical activity is missing. So along with cooking, I do a few stretches. I go by public transport, so a few more physical activities are added, but still it seems less. So, what I have done now is add a game time during my lunch break. That half-an-hour play had been so relaxing. 

3. Good sound sleep

Even after doing so much, my body is not happy. Why? This is because I am not able to regularise my sleep well. A sleep of 6-8 hours is essential. It is during our sleep that our body does all cleaning and repair work. If we give this time to our body, then only we can actually enhance the true power of lifestyle in our lives. Try sleeping well and see how everything starts falling in place. 

On the internet I found many types of lifestyles. What charmed me most was the active lifestyle. It says that an active lifestyle is a way of living that includes regular physical activity. Then it elaborates on each of the activities we do in our daily lives, which can be counted as a physical activity. This made me feel good because every time I start an exercise regime, it goes for a month or so and then all flop show. I wanted to be active and burn my calories aptly to be healthy. These small physical activities which I can do more often can keep me fit and healthy, so why not do them more often? This brings a glow to my face and a sparkle in my eyes. So let us join our hands together to be an active and healthy person. 

FreeStyle Libre

Disclaimer: This article has been written as part of an awareness initiative by Blogchatter and reflects the author’s personal views. It is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment recommendations. Please consult your doctor for advice specific to your individual health needs.

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