THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The best way to control diabetes is to use a judicious combination of multiple therapies, including insulin injections and oral medications, according to diabetologists from across India and abroad who attended the JPEF annual global diabetes convention, which concluded in Kovalam on Sunday.
With over 101 million people living with diabetes, researchers refer to India as the diabetes capital of the world. Among the states, Kerala has the dubious distinction of diabetes prevalence as high as 20 per cent, compared to the national average of eight per cent.
Dr. Jothydev Kesavadev, organising secretary of the 12th edition of Jothydev’s Professional Education Forum Diabetes Convention 2024 (JPEF2024), reminded the participating specialist doctors, diabetologists, researchers and academics that ‘not all medications are for all patients.’
“In Type 2 diabetes, there are more than 14 pathophysiological defects and you have to have multiple therapies. However, not all medications are for all patients. Success is when you have the brilliance and the time to choose the best one for individual patients and combine it with oral therapies,” he said.
Renowned diabetologist and researcher Dr. Shashank R Joshi pointed out that food habits and genetic traits are the real culprits behind uncontrolled hyperglycemia in Indian patients.
A research study, specifically designed to understand the carbohydrate consumption patterns of individuals with Type 2 diabetes showed that Indians consume a diet rich in carbohydrates, which constitute 64.1 % of total energy from diet.
This leads to the ‘thin-fat Indian syndrome’ which means that even when a patient looks thin from the outside, they have a higher amount of harmful fat, especially around their organs. Asians genetically differ from westerners and studies using sweet-meal biscuits, malted wholewheat cereal and cereal biscuits with milk showed that Indian Type 2 diabetes patients had higher blood glucose levels after each meal. Dr. Brij Mohan Makkar who gave a presentation on ‘Future therapies for obesity management’ told the participants that scientific ways to lose weight can prevent the occurrence of Type 2 diabetes. It can also reduce cardiovascular mortality, and improve blood lipids, blood pressure and obstructive sleep apnoea, a common sleep disorder where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. All this will lead to improved health-related quality of life, he said. Speaking on the sidelines of the convention, Dr. Jothydev said that there was a dire need to update the knowledge base of doctors across the country. “There could be more than two dozen options for treating diabetes in our country. This includes injectables and oral therapies. And with the biosimilars and the generics available in the market, there are more than 300 different names in the market and it’s so confusing for the doctors. So, this is a programme that doctors from all the specialists can attend,” he said.
“Our objective is to make the doctors aware that compared to 20 years ago, nowadays complications in diabetes are preventable. We are in an era where lifestyle corrections, diet modifications and recommendations are available,” he added.