Courtesy of our Genes, carb predominant Dietary Habits, ridiculous religious & socio-cultural taboos & slowly but steadily penetrating sedentary lifestyle, the countdown has already started & Diabetes will prevail as an epidemic & strengthen its foot-hold on the rather, yet ignorant, National population. It is high time for the development of Community awareness rather than individualistic management.

Prevention by adapting to a healthy lifestyle right from a tender age, avoiding childhood Obesity at all costs will definitely decrease the Prevalence. Aggressive management in the initial years of the Disease goes a long way in reducing the long-term comorbidities & gifting a standard quality of life to the patients.

Covid is a pandemic within a pandemic. The outside pandemic is the metabolic pandemic i.e., diabetes and related metabolic disorders among which covid is a communicable pandemic. In the total life duration of a diabetic patient, this covid period is most suitable for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. There is a strong association that if the glycemic profile is in control then even if someone is affected by covid it will be very asymptomatic or less symptomatic, but if the glycemic profile or the metabolic profile is not in control then there is a very high chance that people will suffer from very severe covid. Hence, it is very important to maintain a disciplined life, one should strictly adhere to the proper medication which has been prescribed and regular follow-up is absolutely necessary.

There has been a very interesting observation, during the second wave even in the first wave we have seen that a lot of very young people have suffered from severe covid.  Now when we did glycosylated hemoglobin we found that these patients have diabetes but the diabetes was undetected and maybe that is the cause of the covid being so much severe and it required hospitalization. So, the diagnosed cases of diabetes are just the tip of the iceberg.

Covid has unmasked many unknown diabetic patients who did not know that they had diabetes maybe they were not being monitored but because of severe covid they became hospitalized, they came under monitoring and they were diagnosed with diabetes. So, this basically implies that if the metabolic profile is not controlled and if anyone gets affected by covid then the covid will be severe which might even require ICU and ventilation support.

Thus it is understandable that the patients who are at a higher side of risk, for example, those who are morbidly obese or those who have a family history of diabetes, once they cross the arbitrary age limit of 35 years to 40 years, should get their sugar checked if not every six months then at least annually. A disciplined lifestyle, regular exercise, and junk food should be limited, a home-based diet is absolutely mandatory.

About the author- Dr. Satyam Chakraborty, Endocrinologist, Fortis Hospital, Anandapur, Kolkata