14 November marks World Diabetes Day, and residents of Khayelitsha received expert advice on how they can prevent and manage diabetes.

Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects how the body turns food into energy. There are more than 4.3-million people living with diabetes in South Africa, according to Dr Abraham Opare, project manager for the ORBIS-World Diabetes Foundation, Diabetic Retinopathy Project.

At the event held at Khayelitsha District Hospital on Thursday, Opare said diabetes is in most cases caused by bad lifestyle choices. “People are either not physically active or the kind of foods they eat are not healthy enough. As a prevention measure we encourage people to be more physically active, and you don’t have to make the physical activity look like work. Even dancing or taking short walks. We also encourage people to eat a lot of vegetables, those available to them in the community. People must also avoid stress and get enough sleep,” said Opare.

Assistant manager at Khayelitsha Day Hospital, Bulelwa Gaji, said one of the biggest challenges in the context of Khayelitsha is that many people still don’t take diabetes seriously. “Diabetes is a lifestyle disease; it can be controlled through exercise, diet and compliance to medication. In our facilities, people always complain about not having money for the diet. We try to educate them that it’s not about eating expensive food but rather staying away from certain types of food. Another challenge we have is, after people have been diagnosed, they don’t want to come back and continue with medication,” said Gaji. 

The migration of people to other provinces also disrupts their keeping to a medical regime. “People will come and get diagnosed with diabetes and once they feel better will go maybe to the Eastern Cape and upon their return, their diabetes has gotten worse and out of control and they have to start afresh,” she told Elitsha. The rate of diabetes in Khayelitsha and across the Cape Town metro is very high, she said, looking at the numbers in the hospital database. In her assessment, it is the most common controllable disease.  

She said they battle with convincing patients to take care of their own health. “We need more awareness; we have health promoters who go around and teach people what diabetes is and how people can control it and prevent complications,” she added.

Calls for access to treatment in low-income countries

On Monday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released a statement calling on pharmaceutical corporations Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and all insulin manufacturers to take urgent action to increase access to treatment. “80% of people with diabetes live in low- and middle-income countries, where access to insulin pens is extremely limited due primarily to high prices. Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi control and monopolise the diabetes market, making business and manufacturing decisions that affect people’s access to insulin and often setting prices of their newer insulins as high as they want.”

According to the MSF, such decisions effectively block access to more practical treatment with pens for people living with diabetes around the world, and particularly in poorer communities and countries.

Exercise and diet is key 

Dr Deon Minnies, director of the Community Eye Health Institute at the University of Cape Town (UCT), called on communities and individuals to make better decisions when it comes to their health. “The main reason we are here today is to remind people that your health is in your own hands, it’s not in the doctor’s hands. Diabetes is developed over a long time, mainly through lifestyle problems, maybe eating the wrong diet, eating too much sugar, and a lack of exercise and allowing yourself to become overweight. That is how it develops,” he reiterated.

“If you keep your heart rate well and fit. Exercise has so many benefits not just for diabetes. Not even a lot, just 30 minutes a day of exercise directed. Watching your diet and refraining from sugary food like biscuits and drinks. Balance your diets with green vegetables, that should keep diabetes away. Once you have diabetes you are at risk of getting complications, which may include losing sight, or have greater risks of having heart attacks and so on,” said Minnies.