History does repeat itself. My friend was telling me about the uncertainty of life and health. When we reach 40 health is most vulnerable. There are unknown changes in our bodies and disease creeping in and causing lots of inconvenience to our lifestyle.
It does not help my friend to feel relieve when I told him that certain ethnic groups, overweight and those with family history of diabetes mellitus (DM) are more likely to have DM. In an article written by Liaw (2008), on 14th January, 2008, he said that “Indians are 2 to 3 times more likely than Chinese to contract Type II diabetes, and Asians on the whole are about twice as likely as Caucasians to get it”.
In my opinion, DM is a metabolic disease and is linked with obesity. Metabolic syndrome is when the body’s system failed to convert food into energy. When there is too much sugar, which will eventually break down into glucose, in the blood and the insulin produced by the pancreas cannot help glucose to enter the cells.
DM does not kill, but it is the 7th principal cause of death in Singapore in 2006 (Liaw, 2008). Most of the patients are dying or died from the complications caused by DM. Peter Gluckman pointed to the Straits Times that there are growing numbers of young people – some not even fat- are contracting DM. He said that even you are thin on the outside, but there may be a lot of fat inside you which made you susceptible to diabetes.
Liaw (2008) made an interesting point about the food we get as a child when we were born. He had made a good point here and I strongly believe that DM is related to your diet. Liaw (2008) said that “The traditional confinement diet Chinese mothers follow in the first month after child-birth might hold a key to lowering their babies’ risk of diabetes later in life”. What Liaw was trying to say is that what you feed your babies with is very important and I do not think that it is necessary be within the confinement period. It should be an on-going thing.
When I was working as a Medical Nurse in a chronic management ward, I observed that most patients with DM like one particular food. It is the cheapest that you can get and most convenient for anyone to put such item at home for treating hungry any time of the day. Yes, I mean the notorious BREAD!!!
Most of the breads are processed carbohydrates. Unless you are eating those expensive and hard to swallow full wholemeal and wholegrained bread, if not, most of them will give you more glucose in your blood. If you do not believe me, why not try to monitor your blood glucose level after taking the processed carbohydrates? You will know what I mean.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine therapy, most of treatments are focused on the 3 burners or on Ying deficiency. With my understanding on the formation of DM, my treatment will generally focuse on digestion problems, strengthening the function of the heart and restrict the consumption of processed carbohydrates.
Refernce
Liaw, W. C. (2008). S’pore And NZ Researches To Study Diabetes, Obesity In Asian. The Straits Times, Singapore, H5.
