“Diabetes is growing at an alarming rate”, that was the introductory phrase with which the director general of the National Diabetes InstituteEndocrinology and Nutrition (Inden), Ammar Ibrahim, broke the ice by starting the conversation.
In 2018, Inden, together with the Ibero-American University (Unibe), presented the research “Characterization of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Dominican Republic”, which determined important statistics on the situation of diabetic patients in the country.
“It was shown that 13.45% of the Dominican population has diabetes, additionally, there is 9.9% in prediabetes. If we add these two figures, we are talking about approximately 25% of the Dominican population with diabetes or prediabetes,” Ibrahim said about the results.
“That is alarming, we have to speed up the pace, because it continues to grow. As a health center, Inden’s mission is to educate to try to stop the damage or at least limit its complications. Diabetes can never get ahead of us,” he added.
In the study, 80% of the women interviewed had an increase in the waist area. In the case of men, the figure was between 68% and 70% of the universe, obesity being one of the risk factors for the diagnosis of diabetes.
Due to its origin, this progressive disease can be autoimmune (type 1) or due to insulin resistance (type 2), the latter being the one with the highest incidence.
Obesity in children
The diabetic foot surgeon and specialist indicated that these figures not only include the adult population, but that the growth of obesity in children is notorious.
“We are a country that reflects international society, in the United States childhood obesity is scary,” said the doctor.
Ibrahim attributes this situation to two fundamental factors: long working hours on the part of both parents, which leads to access to fast food that is easy to cook, and changes in lifestyles more attached to technology than to physical activity.
“When we were children, after doing homework, we would go out to the patio to run, to play ball, to play soccer, to exercise. Children today are not like that. Most stay at home in front of a video game, in front of a television, a cell phone or a tablet and that develops some intellectual abilities, but eliminates physical activities, “he compared.
“The population must be taught that blood glucose should be taken once a year if it does not have a risk factor, and if it does, do it every six months”Director of the Inden
A third element that is added is the availability of vehicles, whether public or private, which have minimized the hours of walking for children and adults.
“You have to do the exercises not only as a treatment, but as a lifestyle. We don’t have to wait until we’re obese or a few extra pounds to start exercising,” he said.
For her part, the diabetologist Daniana Perdomo explained that “obesity is a disease. That has to be introduced in the minds of all of us so that the change begins much sooner”.
Forgiveness indicated that children copy the behavior of adults, including eating habits, therefore, a parent cannot demand that they eat fruits or vegetables if they do not set the example.
“All obese people are prediabetic until proven otherwise,” Ibrahim said.
Previously, children were not usually screened because it was not common to find cholesterol or diabetes conditions.
controlled
Uncontrolled diabetes produces complications, but controlled diabetes, if you have them, will be very simple or easy to treat.
“Diabetes that is not controlled, that the patient does not take from his doctor, does not take the correct medication, causes complications and there is no organ that is not affected by diabetes, one more than another,” Ibrahim explained.
Among the main ones, the doctor cited: brain, eyes, heart, kidneys, nerves, arteries, digestive system and diabetic foot.
“You have to routinely do blood sugar checks. Those without risk factors once a year and those with risk factors once every six months,” he added.
Regarding blood sugar values, Dr. Perdomo specified that a person without diabetes should show values less than 100 fasting and a diabetic patient should not exceed 130.
Gestational
Specialists noted that for a baby born weighing more than nine pounds, the mother may have had gestational diabetes or prediabetes prior to pregnancy and not be aware of it. “When a woman develops diabetes during pregnancy she has two possibilities, either she returns to her normal state or she remains diabetic,” Ibrahim pointed out.
The head of ophthalmology at Inden, Rosa Fernández, stressed that diabetes is the second leading cause of blindness in the country, surpassed only by cataracts. It usually causes damage to the retina. Normally, diagnoses of retinopathy prevail in the population of working age, between 20 and 74 years old, “but this does not mean that sooner or later it cannot exist,” she commented Fernández. The time of development of the disease and its evolution are fundamental to measure the damage to the eyes, “who has less than five years of suffering from diabetes, rarely has (effects). If the patient has 10 years of diabetes, 50% of them develop retinopathy. When the patient is up to 30 years old with diabetes, she has up to a 90% chance.”
