'Diabetes among children increases'

Kakinada, Mar 31: Diabetes, though dreaded, is a manageable disease but due to lack of proper awareness among people, its prevalence was on the increase, especially among the children and teenagers, according to Ram Swaroop Jawahar, a diabetologist.

Talking to newspersons here yesterday, Dr Ram Swaroop said, while it was genetic in majority of cases, the environment also found out to be the major factor for its incidence in several other cases.

''Modern sedentary life styles, consumption of junk foods and obesity were the factors for the prevalence of the disease among elders after 40 years, but in case of children and teenagers, it was the continuous stress and strain. Most of the college students of late becoming more vulnerable to diabetes,'' he said.

Pointing out that most of the people were unaware of the factor that they became diabetic, till they approach the doctor for treatment of some other ailment, Dr Swaroop attributed it due to lack of awareness.

Even among those already declared diabetic, it was not under control, once again due to lack of awareness about the impending complications. In India amputation of legs occur due to two reasons, one due to accidents and another due to complication of diabetes.

Similarly for blindness also, diabetes was the root cause, which are preventable' he remarked.

Hormonal imbalance, malfunctioning of Pancreas, he said, leads to incidence of diabetes and one can lead a normal life by keeping the blood sugar level under control by proper and regular usage of medicines, regular physical exercises and restricted diet.

Dr Swaroop regretted that despite the publicity campaigns taken up by several NGOs and government departments, the awareness against diabetes was not spread to the expected level.

He said proliferation of the diabetes leads to frequent infections and side affects, besides making the diabetics susceptible to other diseases, such as, tuberculosis, skin diseases and multi-organ failures.

Dr Swaroop cautioned people of resorting to self-medication such as eating bitter stuffs such as neem leaves,bitter gourd, bitter herbs.

They will aggravate the disease instead of controlling it. It is better to follow the doctors' advice always whatever system of medicine they choose. One should take precaution to ensure that they maintain the blood sugar levels as directed by the doctors, he added.

UNI