A recent report released by the Nutrition Coordinating Unit of the Ministry of Health has indicated that compared to 2016, the number of diabetic patients up to now, in 2017 has doubled with even young people being diagnosed with the disease.
Generally, Sri Lankans are health conscious, and the majority, are familiar with traditional food items as far as their food habits are concerned.
Diabetes, a non-communicable disease, is found in one in six persons in the island and because the number of patients is on the rise, it has been surveyed that nearly over thirty thousand diabetic patients die due to the disease annually.
Diabetes is caused mainly due to wrong food habits and lack of exercise. We consume a lot of food and do not exercise. As Sri Lankans are now living in a highly commercialized era, lifestyles have turned into a rat race, from dawn to dusk.
It is sad to note that not only have lifestyles of adults changed, even lifestyles of school children have changed drastically with regard to food habits and physical exercise.
In every school nowadays only a handful of school goers spend time in extracurricular activities such as sports. After school, a large number of students go to tuition centres, instead of allocating time for sporting activities.
Adults too, spend more time in office duties, finding hardly any time for physical exercise.
A few decades ago, sports clubs with tennis courts and indoor stadiums with badminton courts were found islandwide, where even elite government servants from the judicial service, civil service and police engaged in sporting activities after office hours.
Nowadays we hardly find tennis courts around the island and people, after office hours spending more hours engaging in sports.
Since the Nutrition Coordinating Unit of the Health Ministry indicating that 25% of the country’s population was diagnosed with diabetes, the government should workout fresh strategies to combat the non-communicable disease before it increases further threatening the lives of the majority of Sri Lankans, including the younger generation.
Campaigns against narcotics, smoking and alcohol have been carried out extensively in the country in recent years.
Therefore, it is high time the Ministry of Health with its Nutrition Coordinating Unit to launch an awareness campaign from grassroots level to counter the key factors which remain as the root cause for the increase in Diabetes.
According to the Health Ministry’s, Nutrition Coordinating Unit, compared to last year diabetic patients have increased during the first six months of this year and the number has been stated as 25% of the country’s total population.
As various illnesses and ailments are being contracted due to an imbalanced lifestyle, Diabetes remains the main among all diseases threatening human lives even with cardiac ailments and neurological disorders due to improper food habits and lack of proper physical fitness.
Medical experts on Diabetes in their suggestions have pointed out that healthy food habits and regular physical exercises as being the solution to keep away the stressful conditions and would help in a big way to stem Diabetes.
The Nutrition Coordinating Unit cites increase in sugar consumption among Sri Lankans as one of the prime factors for Diabetes, other factors such as the increase in the fast food habits among Sri Lankans have also attributed extensively in recent years for the alarming increase in Diabetes in the island.
Apart from the majority falling victim to Diabetes, the health sector in the country will also be burdened with a rise in expenditure to deal with this new phenomenon.
To overcome the Diabetes menace, all efforts should be put in place in a coordinated manner to eradicate the disease and ensure hale and hearty lives for Sri Lankans!