Diabetes: Expert advises Nigerians embrace regular health checks

A medical practitioner has advised Nigerians to imbibe the habit of going for regular diabetes check-up and reduce consumption of sweetened drinks.

Dr Uchenna Iroka of the Department of Accident and Emergency Unit, Minna General Hospital, gave the advice on Thursday in an interview with Newsverge in Minna.

He said that the advice was necessary since symptoms of the disease does not manifest on the patient.

He described diabetes as a multi-systemic disease that affects all parts of the body.

Iroka said that increased consumption of sugar-based drinks was responsible for the looming diabetes epidemic recorded in the country.

According to him, a lot of people are not aware that they were diabetic.

“When the insulin that is produce by isles cell in the pancreas that controls blood glucose is not enough in the body, the person is at risk of being diabetic.

“Sometimes, the insulin that is produced by pancreas makes the body to become resistant to it and in such cases the blood glucose becomes uncontrollable because the insulin is not able to control it.

“This can result in high blood sugar and a person can be diabetic without knowing until he or she incidentally undergo medical checkup,’’ he said.

Iroka said that there are two types of diabetes; namely type1 and type2, which are common among young, middle and aged people.

He advised people to go for blood and random sugar tests to know if the glucose in their body was intolerant or diabetic.

He said that such step would go a long way to help people know their health status and how to reduce intake of sugar and sweetened drinks.

The doctor noted that regular physical exercise, controlling diet and lifestyle modifications also help in preventing diseases including diabetics.

He added that the non-compliance had resulted to emergency cases where most patients were brought to the hospital unconscious.