By Kemo Cham
Public health specialist, Dr Manal Ghazzawi has said that the best way to avoid life threatening diseases like diabetes is by eating natural food.
Dr Ghazzawi, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Citi Globe Pharmacy, also advices people to adopt regular exercise, among various recommended healthy lifestyles that protect against various forms of Non-Communicable Diseases. She was speaking on the causes and prevention of diabetes, one of the major public health issues facing the world.
Diabetes is a condition in which a person has excessive sugar level in their blood, which can lead to various complications and death, if it goes uncontrolled for a long time.
The World Health Organization (WHO) categorises diabetes into three types: Type 1, 2 and three. Type 2, which is a condition of insulin resistance, is the most common globally.
Ghazzawi said the major cause of type 2 diabetes is unhealthy lifestyle mostly associated with diet.
“In Africa, we tend to adopt the Westernized culture. For some reason, worldwide, we like to imitate the Western world. We want to eat the food the Western world eat. And a lot of the imported (food) products that come into Africa might not be healthy,” she told ManoReporters in an interview ahead of commemoration of World Diabetes Day.
World Diabetes Day is dedicated globally to raise awareness about the disease which data shows is increasingly becoming a major public health concern for particularly low-income countries like Sierra Leone.
Global data indicates a rising prevalence of diabetes among younger populations worldwide, largely due to obesity and unhealthy lifestyle choices.
WHO data shows that approximately 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, with the majority residing in low- and middle-income countries. Alarmingly, 1.5 million deaths are directly linked to the disease each year, with both the number of cases and prevalence steadily increasing over the years.
In Africa, 24 million individuals are living with diabetes, and shockingly, 13 million of them are unaware of their condition due to lack of diagnosis, according to WHO, which further predicts that Africa will bear the brunt of the diabetes epidemic globally due to insufficient awareness, education, and political commitment to managing the disease.
A recent study in Sierra Leone revealed an 8.3 percent prevalence of diabetes in the country.
World Diabetes Day is a global campaign led by the International Diabetes Federation. This year’s theme, “Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps,” emphasizes the importance of overcoming obstacles in diabetes care.
Dr Ghazzawi is organizing a Walk for Diabetes event in commemoration of the day, as part of efforts to raise awareness about the disease.
World Diabetes Day usually falls on November 14. But this event is scheduled for Saturday November 16, to allow for working class participation.
Ghazzawi is organizing the event in collaboration with the Health Reporters Network – Sierra Leone and Visit Sierra Leone, a travel and tourism agency.
According to her, a lot of the food we eat have some form of sugar in them, noting that because of this, we cannot avoid eating sugar. But she warned that people must consume such food in moderation.
Dr Ghazzawi advised that people should try to get used to drinking tea or milk without sugar as one way of cutting down on sugar intake.
“It is imperative that we, as Sierra Leoneans, acknowledge the profound impact of our dietary choices on our overall health. Embracing a healthy lifestyle, which includes regular exercise, should be ingrained in our culture and treated as a fundamental aspect of our daily lives. By doing so, we can not only reduce the risk of developing diabetes but also mitigate the potential complications associated with the disease for those already affected, as well as other prevalent health issues in our society,” Dr. Ghazzawi said in a joint statement issued to commemorate the day.
Dr Ghazzawi appealed to the Sierra Leone government to take action to protect the population from the harms of imported food stuff and drinks with unsafe levels of sugar, like soft drinks and alcohol. She suggested that the government imposes high taxes on such unhealthy food products and force those who manufacture them in the country to limit their sugar content.
