India continues to deal with a unique mix of communicable and non-communicable diseases. As we continue to grapple with communicable diseases in the form of Dengue and Malaria; lifestyle led noncommunicable diseases like Diabetes are also spreading across the country.

Diabetes is an expensive disease. If we look at the fact that Diabetes cannot be cured at present and only managed, the lifecycle spends on Diabetes runs into millions. As the IDF Atlas, India currently spends around $95 on Diabetes per person per annum. This comes to around Rs 7000 per year for the individual. One can only estimate the total spend per person over a lifetime. Also, this amount is clearly only for management. Any surgeries or treatment for conditions like Diabetes Foot would put back the person by Rs 10,000- 30,000.

It is obvious that Diabetes is here to stay and the best defense against it is managing effectively.

Last year we had spoken to Dr. Menaka Ram Prasad, Endocrinologist & Diabetologist at Apollo Sugar Clinic at Hyderabad

According to her, these are the most common mistakes made by patients with their Diabetes Management include:

· Irregular monitoring of Blood Sugar and ignoring hypoglycemic episodes

· Skipping meals and not following a strict diet routine

· Not exercising regularly

· Not maintaining personal hygiene

· Irregular medication pattern

· Improper storage of insulin (It has to be refrigerated and cannot left in the open)

So what should patients do?

These are 4 key steps in managing your Diabetes better

1. Regularly monitor blood glucose levels
2. Daily exercise is a must, 30-40 minutes of mild to moderate exercise is the key
3. Give importance to personal hygiene and safety to avoid other complications, this is essential in Diabetes as there are other complications like Diabetes Foot, Eye Diseases that can come up if the sugar levels are out of control
4. Educating people to make informed choices about food and lifestyle changes

Finally please do visit your doctor regularly. It is essential to maintain a regular status check on your health. A good relationship with a doctor would help him build the trust that is essential to manage the condition

Diabetes can be managed effectively. Today we have many tools and technologies that can help us to that effect. In our follow up post we will discuss some of them with you.

Stay healthy this #WorldDiabetesDay