OmniBlog

This lady came for a general check-up. She was over 40 years of age and overweight, but the main reason for the visit was that the husband suspected that she had diabetes. After a brief clinical examination at the outpatient clinic, I told her that her blood pressure is slightly high but that may be due to the fact that it was her first visit to the hospital and reassured her.

The husband took over. "No, no, doctor. I am sure she has high BP. Just order a blood sugar now and I won't be surprised if she has diabetes too." I gave him a warm smile and gently asked him to tell me why he thinks so.

"Simple. She eats too much sugar and sweets. I have been telling her not to eat much or she will also get diabetes like me. When we go to a marriage or other functions, she takes my share of sweets too!" he continued, "and she gets cold very often. Whenever our son has cold, I somehow escape getting it as my sugar is controlled, but she gets it, see? She must have high glucose, very high."

The wife was feeling embarrassed and guilty at the same time. She also mumbled that she might have caught diabetes from him!

It was probably an easy situation to handle. Just send them out for a random blood glucose estimation, wait for a short while the reports are ready and tell them whether glucose is high or normal.

However, I chose to take the tougher and timetaking path of making the couple understand the situation. It took a while for me to clear the air and get the husband to listen. Afterall, it is possible that the lady had diabetes, but I did not want her to feel unnecessarily guilty about it for the rest of her life, especially with the husband around to keep telling her that diabetes was her own making.

I had to speak to them about the myths surrounding diabetes related to it's causation, complications, management and monitoring. They did listen intently, but I still had a lurking fear in the back of my mind that she may indeed turn out to be hyperglycemic to my embarrassment.

The Myths:

1. If you eat too much sugar and/or sweets, it causes diabetes.
Wish it was as simple as that. It doesn't. Diabetes is caused by a combination of various factors including genetics and environment. Weight gain may significantly increase the risk of getting diabetes, but that alone is not enough.

2. Persons with diabetes get cold more often.
No. The likelihood of getting cold or other illnesses is not more if a person has diabetes. However, such illnesses may increase the glucose levels in diabetics.

3. You can catch diabetes from your spouse or someone else.
No, diabetes is many things, but it's NOT contagious.

4. Persons with diabetes will get complications, sooner or later.
With good control, the chances of getting complications (like damage to eyes, kidneys, heart, brain, nerves, etc) can be significantly reduced and often avoided. Simple measures like avoiding smoking, good control of diabetes and blood pressure, maintaining ideal body weight with an active lifestyle can help in this regard.

5. Persons wih diabetes should eat a special diabetic diet.
There is no advantage of eating secial diabetic diets. They are more expensive too. The healthy diet for diabetics is the same as that for everyone - diet with adequate cereals (rice, wheat etc), frutis, vegetables and low in salt, sugar and fat.

6. Persons with diabetes should not eat rice, but instead eat wheat-based food like chapathi and roti.
Not true. Though wheat has slightly lower glycemic index (the speed with which glucose is absorbed from this food), there is no preference for wheat in the diet of a diabetic person.

7. Persons with diabetes cannot eat fruits.
All types of fruits and vegetables are beneficial for everyone, including persons with diabetes. Fruits and vegetables contain fibre, variuos vitamins, minerals and natural antioxidants that are beneficial to the body. At least 2-3 types of fruit should be eaten everyday.

8. Since fruits are good, persons with diabetes can eat as much fruits as they want.
In spite of being beneficial, it is certainly better to eat everything in moderation, and it applies to fruits too.

9. Persons with diabetes cannot eat sweets, ice cream and chocolate.
Eaten in moderation as a part of a healthy diet, sweets, ice cream and chocolate can be eaten by diabetics and non-diabetics alike.

10. Sugar-free food can be taken in generous amounts as they don't have sugar.
Sugar-free food has calories too. In addition, the safety of some types of sugar-free chemicals like aspartame are controversial too. It is best to consume as little as possible of these substances.

11. If persons with diabetes follow the doctor's prescription, they will never have high blood sugar again.
Sorry, but not true. Diabetes is a progressive disease with it's ups and downs. Based on the various changes that take place on a daily basis to our activity level, diet, and our reaction to various stressors, blood sugar will vary.
If a treatment plan is followed, the glucose levels are generally better controlled with fewer major variations.

12. Diabetes can be cured by some medications, especially if they are expensive and imported or if they are natural.
Sorry again, but not true. There is no known cure for diabetes and your best bet is to control it well with the available well researched medications.

After having touched upon these myths and answering a few other questions posed by the husband, I sent the lady for a blood sugar examination and to my relief, it was normal, so was her blood pressure on repeat examination. I adviced the couple to follow a healthy diet (same for both of them) and completed the consultation.

How I wish I get enough time to spend explaining to each patient like this.