Treatment of Diabetes

Considering the present medical knowledge, it can be said that diabetes is a life-time disease. With intelligent treatment, it can be kept under complete control and some of its complications prevented. But a permanent cure still remains elusive. Thus the treatment of diabetes is a life-time responsibility.

Some diabetics, on knowledge of their disease, resign themselves to fate. 'Now that the disease has developed and death is a certainty, I should thoroughly enjoy myself for the rest of life', is their misguided belief. They throw all the health-rules to the wind and indulge in excesses. But to man, death is not available for the asking. When dreadful complications of the disease overpower such careless or happy-go-lucky persons, life becomes miserable and intolerable. Ignoring the treatment of diabetes is like axing one's own feet.

The treatment of diabetes does not rob a person of worldly pleasures or make his life dreary. In fact, a person undergoing treatment can lead an almost normal life.

Aims of treatment :

1. To ameliorate all the symptoms of the disease,
2. To control the concentration of blood-glucose,
3. To prevent glucose from escaping in the urine,
4. To formulate a 'whole-day diet-plan' such that all the essential nutrients are available to the body. In child diabetics, the diet should be enough to encourage physical development. Another thing to be kept in mind while planning the diet is that the body-weight is to be brought to the ideal level,
5. To convince the person of the importance of regular physical exercise and to formulate an exercise-programme as per the individual needs,
6. To educate the diabetic (and also his family members, if possible) about different aspects of the disease and its treatment.

The last point needs further elucidation. In the treatment of diabetes, the patient has to bear an almost equal (perhaps greater) responsibility, as compared to the attending physician. He can intelligently and successfully shoulder this responsibility only if he is aware of all the facts of the disease. However, because of several limitations, especially those of time, no doctor can educate his patient fully. That is precisely the reason for bringing out this book.

Modes of treatment:

Diabetes can be treated through-

1. Diet,
2. Exercise,
3. Medicines,
4. Acupuncture or Acupressure
5. Magnet Therapy.