Commemorating World Diabetes Day, Shimla based NGO, Ashadeep organised a Diabetes Awareness Programme for the youth and people from other sections of the society. Two camps were organised here on November 14 in Shimla at St.Bede’s College and Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board. As many as 500 students participated in the Diabetes awareness camp at St.Bede’s College. Besides, 150 students were also tested for the diabetes out of which 3 students were found to have abnormal blood sugar.

Speaking on the occasion, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Associate Professor, Dr. Jitender Kumar Mokta underlined the need for early detection of diabetes as it was affecting and catching especially the young.

“Our immediate aim is to aware the different sections of the society about diabetes, to remove all the hurdles that come in the way of awareness of diabetes and educate them for prevention, early detection and treatment,”

He stressed the urgent need to implement the four A’s make diabetes’s care available, accessible, affordable and acceptable. Dr. Mokta attributed changing sedentary lifestyle and obesity for the cause of diabetes as in present scenario the energy intake was higher as compared to the energy expenditure. He disclosed that the obesity trends in the adults were three times more. He cautioned that according to AIIMS study on obesity on India was facing a fat Tsunami as it ranks top obese nations of the world, 120 million Urban Indians are grossly obese, 50 percent Urban women greater than 35 years have an unhealthy body shapes, 45 percent males and 55 percent female in Delhi are obese, 1/10 Urban Indian children is overweight, if current obesity rates continue , one in three new borns in 2020 will eventually develop diabetes.

Talking about diabetes implication disclosed that if diabetes affects at age of 20, it could produce renal failure, blindness or amputation at the age of 45 which could also impact the economy of the country. With obesity emerging as a major problem, he emphasized the need of doing away of fast foods that is fast emerging as a killer diet. He called upon all to adopt a healthy life style with exercise and intake of healthy food diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. The most important goal in diabetes treatment is to bring blood sugar level as close to normal in order to delay complications from diabetes, he said.

A similar talk and interactive session on Diabetes was organized at HPSEB, Shimla.

Working towards diabetes awareness across the state, Sushil Tanwar,President Ashadeep said that this was the twentieth such awareness camp organized by the organization.