Dr. Ammar Ibrahim, a diabetes specialist, says that accepting a time diagnosis avoids complications to the patient.
Diabetes, which until 2013 was affecting 382 million people worldwide, can trigger serious complications that gradually deteriorate the quality of life.However, a timely diagnosis and adequate treatment guarantee a “friendly” coexistence with this disease, said Dr. Ammar Ibrahim, a specialist in the treatment of diabetes and director of the National Institute of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Nutrition (INDEN) in the Dominican Republic.
Ibrahim represented Inden in the Regional Seminar on Diabetes that took place in May in Punta Cana, in which clinical research on this disease was promoted, with the support of the pharmaceutical company dedicated to the care of diabetes, Novo Nordisk.
How serious is the incidence of diabetes in the world and in our region particularly?
Diabetes is a metabolic disease where the body cannot use glucose properly and is the disease that has the highest growth index in recent years.It is estimated that between 9% and 10% of the world's population has diabetes.Of course some countries have more and others less, but that is the average.And the most dangerous thing about that number is that it is estimated that 40% (of total cases) is not diagnosed.
How does diabetes affect a person's life?
The danger of diabetes when it is not controlled is that it may not give symptoms ... A person with diabetes can have it very high and feel nothing, therefore that increase in blood glucose, the abrupt change of that level, can affect all theorgansThere is no organ that is exempt from the damage it can produce, but the most common are the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and feet that can end amputated, kidneys with permanent damage or renal insufficiency, the eyes canFinishing with blindness and the heart and blood vessels can end with a heart attack, they are vital organs for life and for the quality of life.Those are the long -term effects, but in the short term it can produce something that is called severe hypoglycemia, where sugar low suddenly, or it can be a diabetic coma or acidosis site where it increases abruptly for an important time, thenYou can have short -term damage such as long -term damage.
You talk about a trinomial that must be between the pharmaceutical industry, doctors and patients so that diabetes can be controlled ...
When we talk about the bad part of diabetes, we have to talk about the good part.That is, it is a disease that is so terrible, with damage so severe that they can affect life, but it is a very manageable and very friendly disease when you make friends with that disease, and to be a friend of that disease, patient's educationAnd his relatives is an essential factor, because alone medicines cannot have absolute control, the doctor alone cannot have absolute control.That is why this triangle is very important to have the expected result.That is why we have stopped saying that diabetes is a disease and we say it is a life condition.Then we have to make people who have diabetes understand, who are not sick, but have a life condition (and that) if they lead a healthy life, they take medications and receive medical advice they can live normal like any other person.
What is the main obstacle that is for this possible?
Something paradoxical is the lack of education and lack of knowledge, and that is your importance as a media to disseminate all this information, because you have thePower of bringing information to the public, no matter its level or distance, which is different in the case of doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.
How much are eating habits in the high incidence of diabetes?
It is the cause and result, because poor diet can produce diabetes, but the one with diabetes must have good diet, because if it has poor diet it will have complications very soon.That is why food is essential to prevent diabetes and for the best treatment of diabetes, so for those who do not have diabetes, food is essential so that they do not become diabetic and for those who are diabetics, food is essential forDo not have complications.
What implies that for society, that there are so many people with diabetes?
It has serious implications from any aspect, for the number of people, for the complications they can have, for the cost that their treatment can have, for the change of lifestyle negatively ... because a 50 -year -old person, who must beA very socially and economically active person, and amputates a leg as a complication of diabetes, in most countries-mainly our countries in limited resources development-that person is disabled, is already a person of weightvery strong for your family and society;A person who ends blind at the age of 60 is already a heavy burden for the State, for the family, for society, we have to avoid it.
What should be the attitude of a person when they inform him that he has diabetes?
The psychology of people with diabetes is a bit complex, but the common denominator is rejection and denial because they say: "I don't feel anything, I'm not sick."That is why in any institute or any hospital that manages people with diabetes, the Department of Sicology, the Department of Squiatry are essential departments, because they have to make people accept their condition and be a very active part to improve that condition.That negation phase is sometimes short, but sometimes it is very long, because it lasts several years, and when the patient accepts it there are already serious complications that we cannot improve.
WHO IS IT?
Dr. Ammar Ibrahim
Profession: Surgeon.
Professor of the Ibero -American University (UNIBE).Member of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) President-elect of the International Diabetes Federation for the Region of Central America and South America (2015-2017).
Sub-specialness in diabetic standing with updates at Harvard University and at the University of California.Doctorate in Diabetology and Nutrition at the Ibero -American University.
