Lagos,18 November, 2024 – When 52-year-aged Adeola Akinyemi, a trader residing in Lagos, purchased her Kind 2 diabetes diagnosis ten years ago, her world shifted. The news came as a shock, yet it location her on a hotfoot that would change her dietary and sedentary lifestyle.
“I bear in ideas feeling constantly tired, always thirsty, and frequent the bathroom at night”, says Adeola. “I was shedding kilos rapidly despite eating correctly. It wasn’t except I went for a routine take a look at-up that I came across my blood sugar ranges have been dangerously high.”
Her hotfoot with the situation has been challenging, nonetheless she is relentless and has adapted to a unusual lifestyle that she said is serving to her support healthy.
Adeola’s approach to managing diabetes is one of balanced dedication and consistency. She emphasises that her hotfoot to acceptance and support an eye on began with data and awareness.
After her diagnosis, Adeola sought guidance from healthcare professionals, dietitians, and diabetes reinforce teams. This community of reinforce became crucial in serving to her understand what it meant to are living with diabetes and how you can support her blood sugar ranges in take a look at.
Adeola has since made significant lifestyle changes to manage her diabetes. She follows a strict weight-reduction plan, exercises regularly, uses her medication and displays her blood sugar ranges regularly. “It’s now no longer easy, nonetheless necessary,” she says. “I want to be there for my adolescents and are living a healthy life.”
Diabetes awareness and a healthy lifestyle
Although Adeola’s narrative is now no longer irregular, many are unaware of their status. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, in 2021, 537 million folks, or about 10.5% of the area’s population, had diabetes, many of whom are unaware of their situation and its complications.
Diabetes (high blood sugar) is a power health situation that affects how the physique converts food into vitality. Diabetes prevalence has been rising more rapidly in heart and low-income international locations, including Nigeria. The disease is a major health verbalize, with secondary complications including blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and decrease limb amputation.
Nigeria has the best incidence of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa. The WHO estimates that the prevalence of diabetes in Nigeria is 4.3%. The high prevalence is primarily attributed to the lifestyle changes caused by urbanisation and its leads to industries producing unhealthy diets, including sugar-sweetened drinks, lack of exercise, tobacco expend, and harmful expend of alcohol.
A Call to Action: Knowing Your Status Can Save Lives
With the 2024 World Diabetes Day commemorated, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO Nigeria Nation Representative, emphasises the importance of diabetes education/awareness, early detection, and a healthy lifestyle.
Dr Mulombo said, “This year’s theme, “Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps, “underpins our dedication to decreasing the danger of diabetes and making certain that all folks diagnosed with diabetes have access to equitable, comprehensive, affordable, and quality treatment and care.
“Knowing one’s diabetes status can certainly be life-saving. “On World Diabetes Day today, I beg individuals, communities, governments, health workers, policymakers and civil society organisations to affix hands and act now. For individuals, prioritise a healthy lifestyle, and whenever you’re already living with diabetes, have regular medical take a look at-ups.
Communities can play their position by creating supportive environments that promote healthy living, crop back stigma, and provide access to affordable diabetes care and education. For governments, we totally reinforce your efforts to place into effect insurance policies that enhance access to essential medicines, make stronger primary healthcare systems, and foreground investment in diabetes prevention and care”.
Taking deliberate steps
The WHO has been supporting the Nigerian authorities in its efforts to combat the disease.
With the reinforce of WHO, the Federal Ministry of Health has developed and launched a Multisectoral Action Plan to crop back the morbidity and mortality from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This plan entails cost-effective insurance policies and social interventions to affect behaviours and lifestyle changes.
No longer too long ago, the WHO supported Nigeria’s Governors Dialogue board in conducting Project 10 Million, tagged Know Your Numbers, Maintain an eye on Your Quantity, to display cowl 10 million folks for hypertension and diabetes. The campaign served as an alternative to raise awareness about NCDs as a major public health challenge requiring pressing intervention.
For Adeola and thousands and thousands fancy her, World Diabetes Day is a reminder that while diabetes may be a part of her life, it doesn’t explain her. And with early detection and proactive management, it can be managed.
Her advice to others is clear: all people ought to tranquil take a look at their health status and take support an eye on of their health. Diabetes is now no longer a death sentence. It’s an alternative to rethink our health and lifestyle,”
