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56-year-old Kritika Sharma was diagnosed with high blood sugar levels during a routine blood check up. On her family’s insistence, she consulted a doctor who prescribed her medication. But she chose not to take the prescribed medication and opted for natural remedies to control her sugar. Subsequent tests showed that she was not able to control her blood sugar levels and after five years of resistance, she finally started her medication when diabetes started to affect her vital organs.

Dr. Sunil Mishra, Director of Endocrinology and Diabetology at Medanta shares how this is a common occurrence. “If there are no immediate complications to begin with despite the high readings, patients are not inclined to treat diabetes with medication. However, it needs to be noted that asymptomatic diabetes in the long run is good enough to create a complication. We know to a large extent type 2 diabetes is not curable. Also, scientific studies have shown that the golden time to treat diabetes is in the first 5-10 years. This is considered the golden period because if it’s treated well from the beginning, long term diabetes complications are low.” There are a few people who when they lose weight (30-50% with lifestyle modifications) may be able to reverse the diabetes.

Dr. Shraddha Bhure, Medical Director, Boehringer Ingelheim, India adds, “Heightened awareness and debunking of myths around diabetes can go a long way in convincing people to take appropriate measures. For instance, some people believe diabetes isn’t a serious condition and hence avoid medication, as they are unaware of the complications which can occur if the disease isn’t managed correctly. Additionally, some patients avoid diabetes medication due to a fear of side effects and switch to alternative therapies completely. Alternative therapy options like Ayurveda or Homeopathy can well complement in treating diabetes. Every alternate therapy has multiple approaches to offer, but eventually it’s the physician’s call to decide what’s best for the patient.”

Dr. Kushal Banerjee, a second-generation homeopath at Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic recommends that all patients should consider homeopathy as an important option to manage their diabetes. In the early stages, along with strict lifestyle management, the majority of patients may be able to stop all medicines for life. He adds, “No matter which system of medicine is taken, changes in lifestyle including diet, meal timings, exercise, sleep pattern and management of stress are key to improving your health.”

The journey of diabetes is lifelong, and poses risk of multitude of complications, if uncared for. It is not about merely high blood-glucose level, but the associated risk of complications, adverse events, and even premature mortality, that poses priority for meticulous and sustained care. The commonly known type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is an outcome of imbalance between the metabolic load, versus the body’s physiological capacity. Unhealthy lifestyle practices with excess dietary calorie consumption and limited physical activity, poor stress management, as well as genetic and constitutional factors, predispose to the risk of T2DM and associated complications. The approach to good diabetes-care is based on some founding principles, which may be simple to understand but need a committed effort to sustain in the long run, adds Dr Bhure.

Below are the ABCDEF of diabetes care:

A1c control (hemoglobin A1c represents long-term blood-glucose control)

Blood-pressure control

Cholesterol control

Diet and Drugs

Exercise and Eye-care

Foot-care

In short, diabetes-care is not a short-walk, but a long journey of life, asking for a display of will, motivation, and optimism throughout! It is not about the risk, but about our actions to address the risk, which makes the difference.