Type 2 diabetes is a serious matter. More than half of the people living with diabetes remain undiagnosed. In India, 77 million people suffer from type 2 diabetes and nearly 25 million people are prediabetic. Dr Surajeet Patra, Director and Consultant Diabetologist at Surajeet Patra’s Diabetes Clinic in Bhubaneswar tells us what to know while managing type 2 diabetes. Click on the thumbnail below to watch the entire interview.
Q. What is type 2 diabetes?
There are different types of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is the most common one comprising 95% of the cases. It means insulin resistance or insulin deficiency at the later stage. Insulin resistance has different metabolic mechanisms. These mechanisms lead to obesity or increase in weight or increase in fat deposition in the liver or maybe pancreas, leading to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means insulin is not working properly and that can lead to increase in blood sugar and this is called type 2 diabetes.
Q. What causes type 2 diabetes?
The causes (etiology) of type 2 diabetes are many but obesity is the prime reason. So, 25 BMI (body mass index) is considered overweight and then more than 30 is obese. Besides unhealthy food habits, lifestyle, then your lack of physical activity or sedentary lifestyle, sleep hygiene, sleep quality, sleep quantity, and then stress, all these contribute to this particular type of diabetes.
Q. What are the symptoms a person experiences when going through type 2 diabetes?
Symptoms of type 2 diabetes are classified as 3P: polyuria, polyphagia and polydipsia. They imply an increase in food intake, your increased hunger. Second is an increase in thirst and third is an increase in your frequency of urination. Furthermore, there is a delay in wound healing. Other symptoms like blurring of vision, then peripheral neuropathy (tingling sensation in hands, palms and legs). All these symptoms are an alert to check your blood sugar levels.
Q. Is type 2 diabetes preventable? If yes, how so?
Type 2 diabetes is basically a lifestyle disorder. So, lifestyle management will play a preventive measure. Managing diet, exercise, stress management and sleep hygiene will be effective. When it comes to diet, avoid junk food and saturated fat altogether. Consult a diabetologist for a customized daily food intake limit. For best exercise result, choose brisk walking. 30 to 45 minutes of brisk walking a day will keep you in a safe zone. You can divide this exercise into 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the evening (after dinner), and ten minutes during work.
Leave the tendency to overthink whether it’s about personal life or professional life. Stress management is necessary as increasing stress hormones can lead to increase in sugar or blood pressure or cholesterol. Lastly, sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene means sleep quality, and sleep quantity. Try to get 7 hours of sleep in 24 hours.
Q. If a person suffers from diabetes (even if it is genetic), how will the treatment pan out?
For any type of diabetes, insulin is fundamental. However, the treatment parameters for different types of diabetes, will differ depending on your HbA1c, blood pressure and cholesterol. Even for type 2 diabetes, treatment will depend on the medical case. Other options like oral tablets are also there. As part of diabetes education and lifestyle management, the ‘ABCD mantra’ is also a parameter. Here, A means HbA1c, B means blood pressure, C means cholesterol and D covers diet, exercise, lifestyle management and routine diabetologist consultations. Depending on your anthropometric and metabolic parameters, your diabetologist will give you the solutions to prevent the complications of diabetes.
Q. What are the goals of management of type 2 diabetes?
The goal is to prevent the complications of diabetes. These complications can occur in heart, liver, kidney, brain and leg. Another goal is to prevent heart attack (coronary artery disease) that is soaring in India. Other goals are managing brain stroke, neuropathy, peripheral neuropathy, peripheral vascular disease.
Q. Can home remedies cure type 2 diabetes?
When it comes to home remedies to cure type 2 diabetes, they will be considered as lifestyle management. But, home remedies shouldn’t hamper your routine medications prescribed by the doctors. If you are consuming bitter gourd juice, that shouldn’t stop you from taking medicines regularly. So, avoid self-treatment in the name of home remedies.
Q. Can type 2 diabetes be reversed? If yes, how so?
There is nothing called ‘diabetes reversal’. That’s a wrong concept, it is ‘remission of type 2 diabetes’. Remission is your HbA1c result, which is the marker of your sugar control. If you are able to maintain that HbA1c below 6.5 without medicine for three months, that state is called as remission of type 2 diabetes. Now, remission is not possible for all type 2 diabetics, only your diabetologist can decide whether you are a right candidate for remission or not. If a patient is type 2 diabetic and already faced some complications due to it, then they are not the right candidate for remission of type 2 diabetes. Finally, once diabetes is detected, get into routine visits with a diabetologist.
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