#WorldHealthDay: Working Together To “Beat Diabetes”

Today is World Health Day!

The World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on 7 April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO). This year, the focus is on how to “beat diabetes”.

In simple terms, Diabetes is a condition that prevents the body from properly using energy from food. It occurs when the pancreas does not produce insulin, or when the pancreas produces insulin, but it is resisted by the body.

Diabetes is on the rise everywhere and is now most common in developing countries.

The statistics speak for themselves. The number of people living with diabetes and its prevalence are growing in all regions of the world. In 2014, 422 million adults (or 8.5 percent of the population) had diabetes, compared with 108 million (4.7 percent) in 1980. Diabetes is rising fastest in the world’s low and middle-income countries.

The sad thing about diabetes is that when poorly controlled, it can cause complications including heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness, and foot ulcers than can lead to amputations. However, many of these complications, and these premature deaths, could be prevented. A lot can be achieved by changing our lifestyles, our eating habits and our attitude towards our health.

Together, we can halt the rise in diabetes and provide care to improve quality of life for the millions of people living with the disease. Deliberate, effective responses are needed from government; health-care providers; civil society; producers of medicines, technologies and food; from people living with diabetes; and from each of us. Everyone has a role to play.

Today on #WorldHealthDay let’s pledge to make each moment count and make sure we get strong!

Stay happy, stay healthy.

xoxo

SL