Diabetes & Limbs Salvage Foundation has appealed to government and stakeholders in the health sector to formulate and implement policies that would address the mental wellbeing of individuals living with diabetes.
Speaking at a forum organised by the foundation in partnership with the International Diabetes Federation to mark the 2024 World Diabetes Day which came under the theme, “diabetes and wellbeing,” the founder of the Diabetes & Limbs Salvage Foundation Osarenkhoe Chima Nwogwugwu affirmed that such policy when formulated and implemented would go long way in ensuring that people living with diabetes are adequately taken care of.
According to Chima Nwogwugwu: “Diabetes affects every part of the body, from head to the toe and there is a mistake the care givers, policy makers are making and that is they are not looking at the mental health of individuals living with diabetes.
“You cannot treat any condition without addressing mental health, so focusing on the wellbeing of individuals living with diabetes is crucial so as to get a good result.”
Stressing the need for creating more awareness on diabetes among the younger generation, she said it would reduce the number of individuals living with diabetes.
To her, when the young ones are educated on the reality of diabetes, they will be careful of what they eat as they grow up.
In addition, she said: “Diabetes is a concern and it is affecting more than half of the world population, we need to prevent it and drag the number down, that can be achieved by catching them young, changing their diets, then the government should incorporate diet and exercise in the school curriculum.”
Highlighting the relationship between diet and diabetes, she said the two are interwoven.
“You cannot address diabetes without diet. In fact, they go hand in hand, as a result one should be mindful of what one eats, such an individual should eat in moderation,” she said.
Also speaking at the event which held at Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos, Winner Femiloluwa of the Psychiatry department, of the hospital who spoke on mental health, explained that there is no health without mental health.
Femiloluwa, who is a psychiatrist, affirmed that one can live with diabetes and hypertension for a long time without developing complications such as amputation of the limbs, kidney disease, stroke among others.
Considering the relationship between diabetes and mental health, the medical practitioner said: “Diabetes and mental health are connected from the day one, the moment the person is diagnosed of diabetes.
“We need sugar in the body, glucose is the only energy that the body needs, despite the usefulness of this glucose when it is too much in the system, there is a problem and that is why we describe diabetes as suffering amidst plenty,” she said.
Enumerating dangers associated with diabetes, the medical practitioner said diabetes globally is the number one causes of kidney disease followed by hypertension, adding that “these are two non-communicable diseases that is ravaging the world, they destroy the kidney, kill the man hood and affect the brain.”
However, she stressed the need for people to prioritise their mental health, adding, “whatever we are going through, health is wealth, mental health is the first part of the body that we need to guide jealously because l have never seen anybody with a mental challenge that live a normal life.”
On his part, Kevin Williams urged individuals to avoid consumption of processed and genetically modified food as it could lead to increased cases of diabetes.
Williams, who is part of the team that came from the United States for the World Diabetes Day celebration in Nigeria, also called for more awareness on diabetes, adding that when people are more aware of the illness they will be able to avoid foods that would expose them to diabetes.
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