Health & Fitness By KEMI ILORI
It is now a well known and established fact that we are facing a global pandemic
of Diabetes Mellitus. Type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing and most
costly disorders worldwide. Scientists report that at least 25 per cent of the
population are walking around undiagnosed and insulin resistant (the latter
is the syndrome just preceding diabetes). The sad news is that the age bracket
is sliding lower and lower.
Children are affected!!
Type 2 diabetes used to be called "adult-onset" diabetes, because
it mostly occurred in people over 50. But no longer! The rising rate of diabetes
in children is epidemic. "If you go back 20 years, about two per cent of
all cases of new onset diabetes (type 2) were in people between nine and 19
years old. Now, it's about 30 per cent to 50 per cent " said Dr. Gerald
Bernstein, an endocrinologist with New York's Beth Israel Medical Center.
Among Americans in their 30s, the 1990s saw a 70 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes,
reports the CDC (Centre for Disease Control). Other age groups also showed significant
increases. For those in their 40s the disease rose by 40 per cent, and by 31
per cent for those in their fifties. It is also important to note that blacks
seem to be the most susceptible race in America. A lot of developing countries
are in the grip of this global pandemic. While countries, like India seem to
be most adversely affected, Nigeria is now having an explosion in the level
of occurrence.
I was going to write a different topic today, but decided to write on free radical
damage with regards to diabetes, because of a specific request by someone. I
felt, it is a topic that would benefit others so I decided to share it.
The statistics I quoted above show that there is serious cause for concern.
You may begin to wonder what is going wrong or what are we doing wrong?
I and probably a lot of others have written exhaustively about the predisposing
factors. People usually do not bother and feel insulated against ailments, like
diabetes until a relative or they themselves are diagnosed. It is important,
to be well educated about issues around you and adopt measures that will reduce
ones susceptibility as well as ensure a healthier lifestyle for the diagnosed.
People with a positive family history (i.e. with one or both parents who have
been diagnosed as diabetic), should adopt lifestyles which would reduce the
probability of their developing the disease.
While free radicals is the focus for today in relation to diabetes; I will briefly
mention exercise, which is a very important factor.
Inactivity: These days, more and more people are engaged in blue collar jobs,
which do not necessitate their working their bodies. Nobody wants to be a labourer
or a farmer. Nigerian engineers are always teased about being in the office!
These days, it is literarily unheard of for anybody to trek to the office. You
either catch a bus and the more affluent drive or are driven. The bottom line
is that rich or poor, day in day out, people sit on their buttocks to and from
work. By the time they get back from work at the close of day, they are so tired
that wild horses would not be able to drag them to do any form of exercise!!
Children and adolescents are not spared. Not exercising, being sedentary (watching
TV, spending time on the computer, and playing video games), and eating larger
portions of foods than they need take the lion's share of blame for the downward
age progression of the diabetes epidemic. It is very important for people to
arrange their lives in a way to increase the amount of exercise they do. Start
small. Easy to do activities, like walking and dancing, can make a huge difference
to tuning the body for good health. Sports like tennis (table and lawn), swimming,
etc can be picked up with time. What are free radicals?
What do they have to do with diabetes?
What are free radicals? I will give the straight scientific definition of free
radicals which may be a bit difficult for non-science oriented readers to understand.
But that is what free radicals are Free radicals are atoms or groups of atoms
with an odd (unpaired) number of electrons and can be formed when oxygen interacts
with certain molecules. Free radicals are not completely bad. They are generated
during normal biological processes that take place within our body. In fact,
they are needed in vital body metabolic processes. The problem starts when free
radicals that the body cannot handle or neutralize are generated. Some are xenobiotic
or alien free radicals to the body. Certain substances are potent free radical
generators.
Once formed, these highly reactive radicals can start a chain reaction. Their
chief danger comes from the damage they can do when they react with important
cellular components, such as DNA, or the cell membrane. Cells may function poorly
or die if this occurs. Now imagine that these cells are the cells of an important
organ, like the pancreas, which secretes insulin. What do they have to do with
diabetes? Free radical stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of both
type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Free radical stress would contribute to spontaneous
type 2 diabetes development. I had written about free radicals in this column
precisely in 2004 though not in specific relation to diabetes. Despite this,
I mentioned that free radicals is the way a lot of substances and microbes exert
their damage on cells of the body.
Free radicals are implicated in a wide assortment of diseases. With diabetes,
some chemicals used in processing modern day food are potent agents that exert
free radical stress on the pancreas. One of them is ALLOXAN, which is used to
bleach wheat and make flour white. While Parental stock is an important determinant
of susceptibility for glucose intolerance disorders, it wise to adopt a lifestyle
which ensures reduced exposure to potent food toxins. In food toxins, I mentioned
that we eat toxins in our food everyday.
Some are used to preserve or process the food. The bottom line is that certain
substances can generate free radicals, which increase the probability of developing
type 2 diabetes, especially in positively predisposed persons. It is important
to eat a diet that is low in such substances, but high in antioxidants containing
foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. The latter help to neutralize free
radicals before they are able to exert any damage.