Every year 14th November is celebrated as the World Diabetes Day. The day is aimed to promote awareness about the peculiar condition that afflicts millions of people around the world. Diabetes is a condition in which your body is either not producing enough insulin or not responding to insulin produced. Diabetes is one of the key problems plaguing many people around the world, especially Indians. India houses the second-largest number of people with diabetes, more than 95 per cent of whom have type 2 diabetes, the first being China. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), with the current explosive growth trends, the number of diabetics is likely to increase to 134 million in 2045 from 77 million in 2019. If nothing is done to manage the condition, Diabetes could impact your other organs like kidneys and eyes too. Reports of diabetes being linked to cardiovascular problems are also fairly common. It is important to understand that management of diabetes and its complications imposes a huge economic burden on the society; hence effective strategies are urgently needed to control this epidemic too. Diabetes are of many types: Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Gestational and Pre-diabetes. Since diabetes has no known cure, you can only manage the symptoms. Your diet plays a crucial role in diabetes management. Many foods are known to keep blood sugar levels in control including fish, leafy vegetables, egg, yogurt, nuts, olive oil etc. Now as we are living amid the pandemic COVID-19, older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions especially diabetes appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the COVID-19 virus. There appear to be two reasons for this. Firstly, the immune system is compromised, making it harder to fight the virus and likely leading to a longer recovery period. Secondly, the virus may thrive in an environment of elevated blood glucose.
