Diabetes not irreversable, says diabetologist

Covid had indirect effects on diabetics

Siddharth Kumar Singh
Hyderabad

While Covid brought in many health problems to the people, one of the other reasons people were worrying was about their increase in blood sugar levels.

Doctors say there are two theories to this, one is direct attack of the virus to the pancreas and second is people’s regular intake of steroids as part of covid treatment. Apart from this, there are a lot of indirect effects caused by Covid which have led to an increase in the blood sugar levels of people.

Speaking to The Pioneer, Dr Kiran Madala, HOD Critical Care, Government Medical College, Nizamabad, said, “There has not yet been any research which proved the increase of blood sugar level in people due to the virus affecting the pancreas but due to consumption of steroids, people who were borderline diabetic got pushed to full blown diabetics.

Apart from this, Covid impacts people’s blood sugar level in an indirect way. We have to understand that diabetes is nothing but a lifestyle disease and people’s lifestyle is what was the most affected during the two years of pandemic. Covid created stress among lakhs of people due to them losing families, losing jobs, getting stuck at unknown places and many more instances. Due to this, it took only two years for the rapid increase in numbers which would normally have taken five years.

The major threat for the current generation of diabetic patients is stress, high carbohydrate and sugar intake and less physical activity. The World Health Organisation recommends minimum 20 minutes of exercise a day for five days in a week, starting with this only will take a huge leap in the difference of blood sugar levels.

” Once a person is diagnosed as being diabetic, the perception is that it will stay with them life long, which doctors say is untrue. While speaking about diabetes being reversible, Dr Karuturri Subrahmanyam, Consultant Physician and Diabetologist, Kify Hospital said, “The general mindset of people thinking that once they get diabetes, they will have to suffer the whole life is not true. If appropriate steps are taken, diabetes can be reversed, he added.