World Diabetes Day

Unfortunately, every day should be world diabetes day!!! Even that may not be enough. I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard a million statistics about Diabetes, its impact on the world and its impact on India. India is poised to be the diabetic capital of the world! Yes, not great news.

We are in a vicious cycle. While we strive harder and harder for more money, we spend lesser and lesser time on ourselves. During my days in medical school we were talking about how we don’t walk to the neighborhood store and instead we take the car for everything. Things can’t get much worse, we were told. Unfortunately, today we don’t even have to walk down the house to the car. Groceries can be bought online and delivered home. It’s pretty much the same story for most things.

On the other hand, has everything gotten easy? Nope. Stress levels are through the roof and the perception of stress is even greater. Today the ease of life has spoilt us so much that we want that ease at work too, but that hasn’t come. At least, not yet. So the smallest effort seems like a lot of stress. We’re the most entitled generation, some wise dude, said. The only thing we are entitled to is a mess, somebody responded!

So while it was some work to go the restaurant and eat out, today you can get all of that in the comfort of your home. Delivered right at your doorstep. And so, we have entered this vicious cycle of stress at work – ease at home – no effort for basic needs – diabetes!

Let me tell you a simple trick and why the medical community harps about exercise and lifestyle and all that! An exercising muscle does not need insulin to take up the sugar! As simple as that.

Now imagine the life we live like I outlined above and you will realize that we need a whole lot of insulin to keep us going! Insulin that we don’t have in our bodies!!! Like our finances which for most of us is living on borrowed money or time, our tryst with diabetes is similar. We are spending more insulin than what we have and then we keep adding medicines to squeeze out and overwork our bodies to produce more insulin till it finally gives up and we need to take insulin from outside.

And the cycle continues.

Solution? Rather, prevention? Move!!!! Don’t spend more insulin than you have, but unlike a bank account, there is no app to remind you of your insulin balance!!! And you don’t need one. Move. Mobility. All words that you can think of. That way, you will spend lesser Insulin and your body can hold on longer. If the disease kicks in when you are 60, that is still alright. But if you spend all the insulin before you are 40, then you will enter the vicious cycle very early in life. Like retiring at the age of 40 with no money!!! Not good!!