With the World Diabetes Day just a few days away, it was time for Christian Medical College to reinforce the importance of eating healthy, staying active physically and keeping an eye on the blood glucose levels.
In a bid to educate the public on diabetes prevention and care, the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, organised an exhibition and poster competition on Friday on the theme – Eyes on Diabetes.
Laying emphasis on pregnancy and diabetes, the exhibition, by way of stalls, focused on various aspects that are crucial in the prevention and care of diabetes. This included healthy diet, exercises, foot care, heart and eye care.
“Gestational diabetes is one of the important problems in pregnant women. Twenty per cent of women in Tamil Nadu have gestational diabetes. Within five years, 50 per cent of them develop type 2 diabetes. This is a huge number of young women who develop type 2 diabetes,” Nihal Thomas, professor and head, Unit-I, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, CMC, said.
When this group is targeted with diabetes education such as on appropriate diet and exercise, it pays a lot, as a woman could make all the difference to a family, he added.
“If a pregnant woman has uncontrolled sugar, there are chances that the baby is big. The risk of this child growing to become a diabetic later in life is also much large. Hence, women should keep the sugar level under control during pregnancy,” Dr. Thomas added.
Doctors say that gestational diabetes can cause malformation of the foetus, bigger baby resulting in difficult delivery. Other departments too have joined hands in putting up stalls at the exhibition. This included departments of cardiology, physiotherapy, dietetics, ophthalmology and prosthetics and orthotic services.
So what is the route to control diabetes? It is through eating healthy, being active and thinking positive, explains the stall on diabetes education. The stall of the physiotherapy department points out that physical activity was like magic for type 2 diabetes and can improve blood glucose control.
Preventing cardiovascular diseases in diabetes was the focus of the stall put up by the Cardiology department. Techniques of proper foot care were taught to patients at the foot care stall, while fundus examination was done for patients and prevention of retinopathy explained at the ophthalmology stall.
The dietary stall showcased cereals, pulses and vegetables that constituted healthy eating and foods that should be avoided. One of the highlights of the stall was one dish meal that combined all kinds of food groups in one dish such as “Chola rava upma” and “Thinai pulao”.
A cooking demonstration of simple recipes for diabetics and puppet show on diabetes management was also part of the exhibition.
A mini camp was also held to screen people. Random blood sugar level was tested, and if required, physician consultation was provided to patients. A poster competition on pregnancy and diabetes was also held.
