Medical Experts have asked Nigerians to reduce the risk of having diabetes by avoiding Tobacco use and maintaining normal body weight.
They also stated that doing physical exercises and checking sedentary lifestyle could prevent the outset or delay diabetes.
The World health Organisation had said that diabetes is the major cause of “cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. Between 2000 and 2016, there was a 5% increase in premature mortality from diabetes. In 2019, an estimated 1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes. Another 2.2 million deaths were attributable to high blood glucose in 2012.”
Dr Funmi Owolabi, Consultant Endocrinologist at the Obafemi Awo Teaching Hospital stated this while speaking on “Diabetes: Diagnosis, treatment and prevention” at a webinar organised by the Center for Gender, Women and Children in Sustainable Development (CGWCSD) headed by Professor Olabisi Aina.
Dr Owolabi called on government at all levels to “create more awareness on Diabetes mellitus, provide facilities for diagnosis and treatment and make policy that enrolls all women on health insurance scheme”
According to her, there is need to conduct surveillance on diabetes with a view to identifying its risk factors.
In her own lecture, Dr Adetutu Williams, of Lagos Teaching Hospital who spoke on “Sex and Gender Differences in Risk Pathophysiology and Complications of Diabetes” emphasized the need to pay attention to lifestyle to prevent diabetes.
According to her, ” the prevalence of T2DM is higher in men than women. Also, T2DM is commoner in younger females than male, at middle age men have higher prevalence and by the seventh decade of life prevalence between men and women. ”
According to Dr Williams, the common cause of death globally among patients with Diabetes melitus is cardiovascular disease such as stroke.
To minimize it, Dr Williams urged for screening for “prediabetes especially IGT in women. There is need to improve socioeconomic status and psycho-social status in women with a view to empowering them. There must be increase awareness about sex and gender differences in patients with T2DM”
She also urged women to promote self care and minimize stress noting that preventing T2DM in women “has beneficial effects that extend beyond her lifetime”
The Executive Director of the Center, Professor Olabisi Aina stated that the monthly webinar on women’s health and wellness was designed to draw attention to otherwise neglected killer diseases affecting women and suggest way they can navigate such challenges through experts’ intervention.
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