Healthy Living looks at the reality of diabetes
Men and women, young and old, and children are increasingly becoming victims of this deadly disease. The good news is that it can be detected with a simple test and it can be controlled with exercise, good eating habits and medication. Some are aware that they have the disease and others simply do not know. Healthy Living tonight begins a three part series of this deadly disease.
Marleni Cuellar, Reporting
What would you say if I told you that one of the top leading causes of death in Belize is a controllable disease? Yet it is so prevalent in our country that you are sure to know someone who has been diagnosed with the disease.
Ejay Hill, Diabetic
“You look at a healthy person like me and you say: you’re diabetic? Yes I’m diabetic.”
Diabetes is a chronic condition that arises when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin that it produces. Insulin is the hormone that the body uses to convert sugar and starches and other food into energy that we need for our daily life.
Anthony Castillo, President, Belize Diabetes Association
“Diabetes is one of those chronic conditions which, unfortunately, is on the rise in Belize.”
Lorraine Thompson, Technical Advisor, PAHO Belize
“During the period, 2006 to 2007 the Pan American Health Organization, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the Belize Diabetes Association, we did this study on diabetes, hypertension and their risk factors to determine what was the extent in the country and risk factors meaning those practices or those characteristics that will lead to the development of chronic non-communicable disease in the country. We studied people twenty years and over from a sample of persons both in the rural and urban areas of Belize. We did a questionnaire and we also measured people weight and height to find out the body mass index or how fat they are and we also took their blood pressure readings. We did a look at their cholesterol levels as well as the blood sugar levels. As a result of that we found several people who did not know that they had diabetes previously and of course there were people who knew that they had diabetes. The results are very alarming. We found among that population thirteen percent of Belizeans twenty years and over with diabetes.”
Anthony Castillo
“There are a number of things which came out from the findings which also states that there are more women than men affected with this condition. The study stated that seventeen point six percent of our women are affected by the condition while eight point three percent of our men are affected. It also indicates that when we look at the body mass index forty-one point nine percent of women are up while twenty-three point one percent for men. So we need to look carefully.”
Look carefully at the causes why diabetes has consistently been on the rise. The ministry of health reports that within the period of 2003 to 2007 there are has been a steady increase in the number of diabetes-related deaths. In 2003, a total of seventy-two deaths were reported, this number increased to eighty-nine the following year and ninety-four the year after that. In 2006, the year the study was initiated a total of one hundred and thirty-one deaths were reported. And last year there were one hundred and seven persons who died from causes related to diabetes.
Anthony Castillo
“I myself have been living with this condition for over twelve years and I must say it is a daily struggle, it’s a daily challenge to be living with the condition and some persons, unfortunately, just take the condition lightly and they carry on and more and more persons get the condition and they do not seek assistance, they do visit with the physicians. We now have the Belize Diabetes Association which has been growing in numbers. Again, unfortunately, there are persons who are ashamed of the condition and they choose to live alone. So there a number of a factor which places an increase.”
But unlike other incurable disease, diabetes is controllable. The first step is in understanding the disease and what you can do to keep it under control.
Lorraine Thompson
“People have been known and can live with diabetes for years and live a good quality of life if its properly managed with the proper eating, with physical activity, proper medication and so on.”
Anthony Castillo
“I would think that by and large there is a need for more information and education on this condition. I think much too many persons take the condition lightly because it is a condition you can probably live with extendedly. It eats you out like termite like from the inside.”
Ejay Hill, Diabetic
“Its better to be educated and know what you need to do to control the condition than to not know and end up getting amputated, losing your eyes, your hair, your teeth. I mean from top to bottom you could lose everything and it’s a silent killer. It really is a silent killer.”
If anything, more than showing the severity of the problem Belize, the survey highlights Belize’s need for shaping up. Diabetes is one example of lack of education in a problem that affects so many.
Tune in to next week’s Healthy Living where we’ll look at diabetes from the physicians and diabetics point of view.
