Doctors to go in for new method to treat diabetics

​Hyderabad: With the prevalence of diabetes being 8.4 per cent of total adult population in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the medical fraternity decided to adopt new regimen for treating diabetes, glycemic pentad, with two more parameters added to the existing three will help make a proper assessment of the disease in an individual.

A survey on prevalence of diabetes conducted in 2012-13 by ICMR -INDIAB (Indian Council of Medical Research – Indian Diabetes), pointed out that those on the way to become full blown diabetes were 10 per cent of the population. Since a lot of water has flowed in Krishna and Musi since then, the percentage points may have gone up too, but it is not clear how much as a fresh survey is yet to be done. 

According to Dr Prasun Deb, senior consultant endocrinologist at the KIMS-Hyderabad, the figure is more or less the same as the diabetes atlas brought out in 2016 by International Diabetes Federation, a worldwide alliance of 230 national diabetes associations in more than 160 countries. The IDF figures for India indicated that the diabetes prevalence was in about 7.8 per cent of adult population and ICMR IDAB put the figure at 7.3 per cent.

The atlas pointed out that in India, 60 million people are diabetic of the total 1.2 billion population which works out to two per cent. But, when one considers diabetes in adults, it zooms to 7.8 per cent. The figure is likely to go up to 103 million by 2035 when Indian population is expected to reach 1.5 billion-mark. Dr Prasun Deb said the figures are disturbing as they have made the challenge of management of diabetes more daunting. “If there are ten people around you, one of them is a diabetic,” he said, pointing out that it is not a situation to remain complacent.

According to Dr Prasun Deb, management of diabetes depends on how well its seriousness is diagnosed. The traditional management always targeted the triad of fasting plasma glucose, post prandial glucose and HBA1c but now there are two other parameters that have to be examined which are glycemic variability and quality of life, all of them together are now known as glycemic pentad. 

Dr Prasun Deb said that the carbohydrate diet is the main culprit for accumulation of sugar in the blood but in a country like India where majority of the population cannot afford a diet other than carbs, the only way out is to deal with the carbohydrate diet after it is ingested. There is a misnomer that wheat is better than rice, but both are same in carbohydrate content.

Glycemic pentad acknowledges a multidimensional approach in treating diabetes. It suggests that the therapy should not only aim at the triads (FPG, PPG, HbA1c), but take into account glycemic variability which is caused by the high intake of carbohydrate food and quality of life which is nothing but socio economic and psychological status of the patients.

Broken down to basics, the effective cure for diabetes is physical exercise like walking, gym, sports and remaining happy which reduces stress levels which are contributory factors for diabetes. Incidents of diabetes is found to be high in Middle Eastern countries where they have turned wealthy in the recent past making everyone take a pot shot at the prosperity which leads to human system coming under tremendous stress, Dr Prasun Deb added.