Fast foods and fizzy drinks consumption and a couch-potato lifestyle have become the norm in our lives. By adopting this lifestyle, what many people do not realise is that they are digging their own graves by eating food that is high in fat and sugar content and by not exercising. One of the major health hazards caused by such popular diet and inactivity is diabetes.

‘€œDiabetes, in simple terms, is a condition where the sugar levels in the blood go too high because, either you’€™re not making enough insulin, which you need to keep the sugar down, or your body is not reacting properly to the insulin’€, says Dr Larry Distiller, of The Centre for Diabetes and Endocrinology.

There are two main forms of diabetes – Type 1 and Type 2. Type 2 diabetes is highly common in the older generation and accounts for around 90% of all diabetes worldwide. Dr. Distiller says overweight people are at great risk of Type 2 diabetes.

‘€œThere is a very strong link between obesity and diabetes.   So, if you’€™re overweight, have a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol… those kinds of people are at risk of diabetes’€, says Dr. Distiller.

He says early diagnosis of diabetes is crucial to treating it.  

‘€œA lot of people walking around with diabetes are not being diagnosed. The trouble is in older people who get diabetes. They often don’€™t have any symptoms and that’€™s the problem. They don’€™t get diagnosed. Young people often get symptoms which are thirst, going to the toilet a lot – lots of urine, weight loss and tiredness’€, says Dr. Distiller.    

Though it may never be completely healed as it is a chronic illness, it can be managed through healthy eating and exercise, among other things.

‘€œDiabetes is a lifestyle condition.   What people need to do is to learn to eat healthily, exercise, and, most importantly, get your children to eat properly, exercise and not get fat’€, says Dr. Distiller.

Executive Chairman for Diabetes South Africa,  Mr.   Ranga Kuni, warned people not to take diabetes lightly as it can cause irreversible damage to one’€™s health.

‘€œUncontrolled sugar levels create diabetic damage. Diabetic damage is that you can go blind, your kidneys will get damaged, the nerves in your feet will die – and that’€™s where amputations come in. All these damages are irreversible.   But it can be avoided by living a healthy lifestyle’€, says Ranga Kuni.

However, apart from it being a lifestyle disease, diabetes is a genetic disease, meaning that even people that are health-conscious are at risk of having it.

‘€œWhat is happening in South Africa is that it’€™s [diabetes] getting passed down from generation to generation. Anybody in the family who is a known diabetic, the family of that person has to be careful, as the children and grand-children might become diabetic’€, says Ranga Kuni.

Kuni said it’€™s important to keep healthy and to do regular health checks to see if one has diabetes. That way, he says, one can be able to see early enough if they have the condition and be able to treat it successfully.