Living with diabetes? How food can help you heal

It had been months and Dubai-based expat Dammi had not been able to sleep properly. Every night, the pain seemed to flow from thigh to toe, making rest impossible. For five months, she used herbal oils and pain potions, hot water packs, and ache management pills before the Sri Lankan decided to go back home. She knew that she had diabetes but she hadn’t known how bad it was – diabetic neuropathy, nerve damage that most commonly affects the feet and legs – was setting in.  As an hourly-wage earner who had to be on her toes constantly, she hadn’t been paying attention to her eating habits, choosing instead to scoff down whatever was available at meal times.

It took six months and intense medication to arrest the damage. Even now, a year on and with her sugar levels at normal, Dammi finds herself having to sit still every once in a while, her damaged nerves acting up.

November marks Diabetes Awareness Month in the UAE, and it’s the perfect time to understand – just before the holidays – what the chronic illness is, how it affects a body, and what you can do to protect yourself. The theme of this year is ‘Know More, Do More, Protect Your Vision’.

In the UAE, reports International Diabetes Federation, there’s a 20.7 per cent prevalence of diabetes in adults. Left unchecked or not managed properly, diabetes can lead to complications including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye damage, and nerve damage.

There are three types of diabetes, explains DHA:

Type 1 diabetes is characterised by insufficient insulin production. It requires frequent, daily insulin injections to maintain normal blood sugar levels. One of the most famous people who deal with this condition is Nick Jonas, of the American pop group Jonas Brothers. He was diagnosed at 13. He has been vocal about his journey, and recently quoted by diatribe.org as saying: “I think my diabetes has definitely made me stronger. It’s a big contributor to my character as a person.”

Type 2 diabetes: This affects the body’s ability to use sugar (glucose) for energy, and is often associated with factors such as being overweight or physically inactive. While this is a condition you may be predisposed to genetically, it is a clear case of epigenetics – behaviour and environmental factors influencing gene expression - in action.

Gestational diabetes: This is a temporary increase in blood sugar levels during pregnancy, where glucose levels are higher than normal but lower than those seen in diabetes.

There is another term, type 3 diabetes, which is informally used to refer to Alzheimer's disease. When a body is in this state, the neurons of the brain are unable to respond to insulin, explains Mayo Clinic. This deficiency, it adds, is central to the cognitive decline observed in patients with Alzheimer's.

“While the term “Type 3 diabetes” isn’t an official diagnosis, the strategies overlap closely with preventing cognitive decline,” explains Dr Brian Mtemererwa Endocrinologist and Internal Medicine at Medcare Royal Speciality Hospital. He adds that the way to slow this decline includes strict blood sugar control; being on an anti-inflammatory diet — low sugar, high fibre, healthy fats; regular exercise, which improves insulin sensitivity in the brain; good sleep hygiene because poor sleep increases amyloid plaques; controlling blood pressure and cholesterol; and cognitive stimulation — puzzles, reading, learning new skills.

The most common type of diabetes is type two, and while there are medications out there to help you, this is a lifestyle disease that requires the patient to take food and fitness into consideration.

Dr Mtemererwa explains that diabetes doesn’t always start with obvious signs. Some early or commonly overlooked symptoms include:

Have you ever eaten something and felt a rush of energy and then soon after, like you’ve been winded? If so, you have experienced the great sugar crash. Keeping an eye on the glycemic index (GI) – computed as a zero-100 metric, in order of how quickly something can increase your blood sugar levels – of what you are eating can help you manage the glucose coursing through your body.

Nour Al Mahmoud, Clinical Dietician and Nutrition at Prime Hospital, offers these easy tricks to reduce the GI of your meal:

Diabetes is a manageable menace. Here are some easy swaps to ensure stable blood sugar after your meals, according to Nour:

When you are dealing with someone who is diabetic, mood changes are very common, says Dr Brian Mtemererwa Endocrinologist and Internal Medicine at Medcare Royal Speciality Hospital.

The main reasons for this are: