By Elizabeth Baah, GNA
Tema, Nov. 18, GNA – Dr. Lenusia Ahlijah,
Specialist in Family Medicine at Tema Polyclinic has called on Ghanaians to
treat diabetes at its early stage as it could lead to serious complications.
She said delays with its treatment could
lead to complications such as heart diseases, stroke, kidney diseases, eye
problems, dental problems, nerve damage among other related health issues.
Dr Ahlijah told the Ghana News Agency in an
interview at Tema as the world marked International Diabetes Day that the
disease was quite deadly as about four million people died from it globally in
2017.
Speaking on the global theme for the
commemoration: “Family and Diabetes,” Dr Ahlijah said diabetes was a chronic
illness that occurred when the blood sugar was too much and could not be
controlled by a hormone called insulin, which was produced by the pancreas.
She said there were times that the body
could not produce enough insulin or produces less insulin; and there were times
too, when the insulin was not able to control the blood glucose well, because
the body was not utilising the insulin enough and when that happened you have
too much glucose in your blood leading to health problems in the body.
Dr Ahlijah explained that there were three
types of diabetes and type one occurred when the body was not making enough
insulin, which resulted from the immune system attacking and destroying the
cell in the pancreas that produced the insulin.
She said type one is mainly diagnosed in
young children and young adults but may also be diagnosed at any age and people
with type one diabetes would have to take daily insulin injection in order to
stay alive.
According to her, unhealthy habits such as
smoking, irregular exercise, intake of alcohol, overweight, poor eating habits
made people susceptible to contracting type two diabetes which was common in
middle age persons and older persons.
Dr Ahlijah added that the type two accounted
for about 90 per cent of cases of diabetes stressing that research showed that
about 50 per cent of the type two may be prevented by avoiding the risk factors
associated with diabetes.
She said the third type of diabetes was
gestational diabetes and was common in pregnant women “most of the time the
sugar level normalises after delivery, however some women develop type two
later on in life”.
She added that diabetes was quite common
world-wide as in the United States for instance about 33.3 million people were
recorded as having diabetes in 2015 and that made about 9.4 per cent of the
population.
In Ghana about 518,400 people representing
3.6 per cent of the population were found living with diabetes in 2017.
Dr. Ahlija said it was about time Ghanaians
were aware of the symptoms of diabetes that include; increase thirst and
urination, fatigue, blurred vision, numbness in the feet and hands , sores that
do not heal and unexplained weight loss.
She said the causes of illness were
overweight, high blood pressure, high level of cholesterol, having a history of
gestational diabetes, infection from genetic and environmental factors such as
infection viruses that cause destruction of the pancreas illness.
She urged people living with diabetes not to
lose hope but try and take care of themselves by paying attention to their
health care providers, avoid smoking and alcohol, eat well-balanced diet,
partake in regular exercise to lose weight.
World Diabetes Day is the world’s largest
awareness campaign reaching a global audience to draw attention to issues of
paramount importance to the diabetes world and keep diabetes firmly in the
public and political spotlight.
It is marked every year on November 14, the
birthday of Sir Frederick Banting, who co-discovered insulin along with Charles
Best.
GNA
