Wellness & Fitness

Young, apparently healthy and at risk of diabetes

diabetes

A diabetic patient injecting insulin. Most habits during adolescence years increase risks of getting heart disease and diabetes. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH

Excessive intake of alcohol, eating the wrong foods, sex and partying. That is how Mike Waweru describes his life when he was in college.

But at the age of 29 after consulting a doctor over unending exhaustion and frequent short-call visits, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Mr Waweru, who describes himself as a geek, says his main focus even in high school was studying to get good grades.

“I was not very athletic… still I am not,” he says as he laughs.

“I got a job as a computer programmer immediately after college and I spent all my days sitting in the IT room, after which I would leave for drinks with my friends. I swear I cannot recall the day I deliberately exercised,” he says.

Mr Waweru says he thinks it is the ills of his previous years that have come back to haunt him. At a young age, he now takes treatment regimes that manage the diabetes.

He is not alone. A number of patients who make up the data of Kenyans with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) smoked, drank and under-exercised themselves to having strokes, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

The World Health Organisation says adolescent years were previously thought of as the healthy age, but many serious diseases in adulthood have their roots in adolescence. For example, tobacco use, poor eating and exercise habits increase the risks of a person getting diabetes in later years.

Fat around the body organs makes tissue resistant to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar, so the glucose builds up, and can eventually trigger type 2 diabetes.

The International Diabetes Federation, which represents sufferers, last year released data showing that about 775,000 Kenyans have diabetes, perhaps another 600,000 go undiagnosed.

The rate of undiagnosed diabetes is high in Kenya, and individuals who are unaware they have the disorder are at very high risk of chronic complications. Although malnutrition is rampant, obesity is rising.

Zachary Ndegwa-Muriuki from the Health ministry’s National Diabetes Prevention and Control Programme says only 41 per cent of Kenyans lead their lives considering the impact of their actions on their health.

Of concern now is the excess consumption of fatty, salty diets as fast food outlets dot almost every street in urban centres in a race to meet the needs and convenience of Kenyans.

Doctors are now raising the alarm over the rising number of children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes, previously seen as a disease of the old and wealthy.

“Ten o’clock in the morning you would see pizza being delivered by motorbikes," says diabetes specialist, Dr Kirtida Acharya.

“I am seeing very young patients with diabetes and when I dig deeper, I realise that these children no longer play outdoors. They just play games with their fingers seated on the sofas in front of TV.”

The WHO recommends children participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily.

These activities may include walking, dancing, gardening, swimming, walking or cycling as well as household chores and planned exercises such as visiting the gym.

For adults aged between 18 and 64, 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or doing at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week is recommended.

Gladys Mugambi, a nutritionist and dietician at the Health ministry says the advertising industry is fuelling obesity as companies entice people to consume processed food without moderation.

That a billboard may attract you to a fast food outlet may sound simplistic but a 2012 study in the department of behavioural health in a US university linked the messages of strength, courage and virility in adverts — and a host of other factors like urbanisation — to poor eating habits.

While physical inactivity, alcohol and smoking have been implicated globally as the cause of lifestyle diseases, the culture surrounding food in African nations has received very little scholarly attention until recently.

‘‘The way we treat food to improve taste with the salting, smoking and fermenting generate cancer-causing chemicals,” Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri said. Many guidelines also recommend that patients with type 2 diabetes should aim to reduce their intake of salt.

But it is the misinformation ingrained in cultural eating habits and about what is healthy or not that belittles public health intervention.

For instance, in West Africa, healthcare experts raised concerns over the salt content in food additives but studies showed that 95.8 per cent of households still used them daily to enhance food flavour.

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