By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

MAKATI CITY, Philippines — Watch that sugar!

Diabetes is one of the most common non-communicable killer disease in the world especially in developing countries, a medical expert warned.

Death from the disease among people above 20 years of age will hit 301 million by 2025, of which 226 million will come from developing countries like the Philippines.

Diabetes ranks as the eighth common killer in the world and is the fourth leading cause of death in the Philippines, Dr. Rosa Sy who is an expert on endoctrinology, metabolism and nutrition during a recent forum on Diabetes Mellitus and Pre-diabetes.

Good news is diabetes is preventable.

Diabetes comes from a Latin word meaning “to pass water like a siphon” and melittus is the Greek word for “sweet as honey.”

According to Dr. Sy, it is a long-standing disease characterized by high levels of sugar or glucose in the blood. When a person has high blood glucose (a case called hyperglycemia), the high amounts of sugar are moved out of the body through urine, thus the layman’s term “sweet urine.”

Our body works like a machine. Let’s think of body cells or the building blocks of our body as small power plants, glucose or sugar as fuel for the cells and insulin as key.

When we eat, the food or fuel is broken down into particles like sugar that can be absorbed by the body cells in a process called digestion. Insulin is produced by the pancreas especially during meals so that glucose can be absorbed by the body.

One of these two things can happen aside from good nutrient absorption: the body produces insufficient insulin or the body cells cannot use insulin. These two causes of diabetes mellitus are termed medically as insulin resistance, said Dr. Sy.

Diabetes mellitus is categorized as Type I, in which insulin is absent in the body.

Type II diabetes, on the other hand, involves defective insulin receptors with insufficient insulin. The latter is the prevalent type among Filipinos, said Dr. Sy.

There is an increase in blood sugar (or postprandial glucose) after eating a meal and it is normal if it is within the normal levels, said Dr. Sy.

Under Type II diabetes, the postprandial or post-meal glucose in the body spikes above normal levels due to excessive, unregulated sugar in the diet — ushering the increase in insulin resistance among individuals.

Dr. Sy said that this high post-meal glucose, even for short periods, leads to complications including heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness, stroke and amputation.

Before these complications, these symptoms show up: excessive urination, increased thirst, increased appetite, weight loss, weakness and fatigue, blurring of vision and poor wound healing.

In addition, there are several risk factors for diabetes. These include genetic history, obesity, aging, stress and other metabolic diseases.

Doctors say diabetes is a preventable disease since it develops due to lifestyle choices of people, said Dr. Sy.

To prevent diabetes, one must have at least 150 minutes of exercise per week; control intake of food high in fatty acid and sweets; maintain a desirable weight; avoid smoking and cope with stress.

If one has diabetes, drugs such as Acarbose from Bayer Schering Pharma can be taken to help control the blood sugar levels.

But as the cliché goes, prevention is better than cure. So start moving away from your sedentary lifestyle and unbalanced diet. A good lifestyle leads to a healthier, longer life.