Diabetes- Is it a preventable Disease?

Dear readers,

Let me begin with the etiology of diabetes. Etiology , as you may know, is the branch of medicine dealing with the causes of diseases. Diabetes is spreading in the the developing countries with alarming speed . It is an ancient disease.The pioneers of the Indian system of medicine known as Ayurveda called the disease Madhumeha which literally means sweet urine . The Ayurvedic doctors considered over-eating and lack of exercise as the cause of diabetes. These ancient practitioners    of Ayurveda were right in considering over-eating and lack of exercise as the cause of diabetes ! According to Modern Medicine the failure of beta-cells in the pancreas to produce  insulin   is the ultimate cause of diabetes . But in most cases of diabetes it is the failure of the insulin to reach the cells that causes diabetes . This  phenomenon is called  insulin resistance .

The complications of Diabetes

What causes insulin resistance ?Doctors are of opinion that the build-up of fat in the body is the cause of insulin resistance . >  As a result y of this build-up of fat , insulin is  obstructed from reaching cells where glucose  must combine with oxygen in the presence of insulin to generate energy .  The food we eat is broken down into simple form of sugar called glucose . If large amounts of glucose accumulates in the blood stream for too long it may cause irreparable harm to the body . It may harm the nervous system , blood  vessels  kidneys. liver., the heart and it may lead to diabetic neuropathy , diabetic retinopathy and eventually lead to mutilation  and blindness.

Is  diabetes preventable ?

An important thing we  have  to remember is that the symptoms of diabetes can not be reversed once they start showing . From what I said  it is clear that diabetes is not fatalistically inevitable . We know fully well that over-eating and lack of exercise are the causes of diabetes . How simple it is then to save ourselves   from  suffering and pain . But we can prevent all that by following a sensible life style !  Eat only  as much food as you need to and expend the unwanted energy by doing physical activities
Please remember , the human body as God made it, is  an amazing , self-correcting mechanism. The Creator has done every thing possible  to help us lead a healthy life  during t our appointed life-span .  No external  enemies  can conquer us. The threat to our life is within us , our failure to make use our will. As  Milton's Adam tells Eve  in Paradise Lost (Book 9), " God  hath done His part, do thine" .  God ," 'whose creating hand  nothing  imperfect or deficient left", wants man to do only a few things . He has to drink the right quantity of water , he has to eat the right kind and quantity of food and last but not the  least  he has to do physical labour. Obviously , God could not have done  all these three  things  on man"s behalf ! If only  man exercises his  will   , he can keep away all the life- style diseases like diabetes and cancer  and lead a   happy and healthy life!

I will continue the discussion in my next post ..

Thank you for visiting

PROF V.P. RAJAPPANN

HEALTHY LIFE--AN INTRODUCTION

Dear readers,

 English language and literature are my favourite subjects and I have already published several posts on these subjects .The purpose of my new blog is to share with readers  worldwide  my thoughts on what constitutes a really  healthy life .Everyone will agree that the pursuit of happiness is the supreme goal of human life. But what is happiness without health?


Do we really pay as much attention to health as we ought to ? Most of us have a wrong idea of the term health . Health is associated in ordinary minds with  money-guzzling medical colleges , posh clinical labs, giant pharmaceutical companies , big corporate hospitals .and the medical profession which is notorious for its greed and avarice! People generally do not realize that health is nothing but a sensible  way of living which is possible  if and only if we have a sound knowledge of that marvel called the human body .In my view health education must begin with  an acquaintance withe the mysteries of our body It is useless to exhort people to do certain things and avoid doing certain without first  convincing them how their actions are going to   affect  the various organs .


The  death of  a friend of mine  from cancer a few years ago made me ponder on the way in which laymen like us could help people to escape from horrible diseases like cancer. and a host of other life-style diseases . You needn't have medical degrees to help common people! Doctors come into the picture only after people have already been  afflicted with theses diseases . , and naturally their focus is on cure which has been so elusive , at any rate , in the case of cancer .  . A cure for cancer ! It has remained  an elusive  one like the search for philosopher's stone! I heard doctors say 50 years s ago that cancer could be cured if detected early. The tricky word is early It is   a fact that cancers do  not lend themselves to early detection! It seems that a cure will continue to tantalize mankind  for many more years to come .But we need not fall into the quagmire of despair . There is still light at the end of the tunnel!

Why can't we  look at the problem from another angle ? Can't cancer , and for that matter any other disease be prevented ?Are cancer and other life-style diseases  fatalistically inevitable?

i will continue  the discussion in my next posts

Thank you for the visit

Prof V.P.Rajappan