Walk, Seminar Mark World Diabetes Day
Zubair Qureshi
Sunday, November 15, 2015 - Islamabad

Diabetes, the silent killer, is directly linked with other body malfunctions like renal failure, blindness and cardiovascular diseases. Thus a diabetic patient should be seen as a potential case of other malfunctions and be treated as such.

Dr Saleem Qureshi, Head of the Department of Medicines KRL Hospital said this while addressing a seminar held at the end of a walk commemorating the World Diabetes Day held at the Aiwan-e-Quaid, F-9 Park here on Saturday. Alliance for Diabetes and Liver Diseases had organized the event. A large number of diabetic patients, members of civil society, health professionals and general public had turned up to get awareness about the deadly disease and its prevention.

Former Inspector General of Police and ex-Tax Ombudsperson Dr Shoaib Suddle who is also patron-in-chief of the Alliance, eminent nutritionist Dr Salma Badruddin, noted artist Zeba Bakhtiar and Imran Abbas also attended the seminar and shared with the audience their views regarding how to control the rising incidence of diabetes in Pakistan.

Dr Qureshi said in Pakistan the number of diabetes patients is steadily increasing. At present there are seven million diabetes patients and in next twenty years, the number can reach almost double i.e. 13 million. In the developing countries out of every 4 patients, three are diabetic, deplored Dr Saleem Qureshi calling upon the people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and avoid fats and sweetened dishes.

He attributed bulkiness as the major cause of diabetics. “Unless we start exercise and be mindful of our diet we cannot get rid of this looming threat on our heads,” said he.

Dr Shoaib Suddle drew the audience’s attention towards the grim fact that 10 persons are dying every one hour due to diabetes related complications. Incidence of diabetes is highest in South Asia because of the unregulated eating patterns of the people of this region, said he. However he expressed optimism that diabetes is preventable and total cost for the treatment of diabetic patient is around $55. Regular walk and healthy (not excessive) diet are the two main factors to check diabetes, he said.

He wished Dr Saleem Qureshi and his team good luck and commended their efforts for generating awareness about the disease among people.

Earlier, Dr Salma Burhanuddin gave a detailed presentation of diabetes and its impact on human health. Diabetes not only affects men’s health, women especially pregnant women become an easy target of the disease, she said. Diabetes affects women’s ability to conceive and most of its victims are from average income groups, she said. Like Dr Suddle she said awareness is the first step towards prevention of diabetes. She asked the families that were present in the Aiwan-e-Quaid in large number to discourage their children from excessive intake of potato chips, French Fries, noodles which are generally considered normal healthy food for kids.

Similarly, she said dry fruit in excess can also raise the sugar level in blood. Flour should be used instead of maida and rice should be taken with pulses, she advised. Imran Abbas TV and film star shared with the audience that his mother was a sugar patient and in the beginning she was scared of insulin, but when she came to know how effective it is in sugar control, she is taking it willingly. He asked the youth to promise that they would adopt a healthy life style and avoid late and excessive food. Dr Amir Awan the eye specialist warned the audience about diabetes’ bad effects on eyesight. Zeba Bakhtiar said she supported the noble cause Alliance for Diabetes and Liver Diseases was taking along for awareness about and prevention of diabetes.

To View on "Pakistan Observer":
http://issuu.com/pakobserver.net/docs/ep2015nov15/10?e=1322770/31376368
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=279127

We are looking forward to welcome you.

• Definition: On inspiration, a drop in systemic arterial pressure greater than 10mmHg.
  
• Measurement:
  1. Inflate the cuff beyond the point where you hear any Korotkoff sounds.
  2. Slowly deflate the cuff until you start hearing any sounds. At the highest BP when you hear sounds intermittently (rather than with every heart beat), note the blood pressure. (This corresponds to the higher systemic blood pressure which is occurring during expiration).
  3. Keep slowly deflating the cuff until you reach the highest BP in which you hear sounds every beat.
  4. The difference between #2 and #3 is the "pulsus paradoxus." If it is >10 mmHg, it is considered significant.
• DDx: moderate to severe cardiac tamponade, occasionally constrictive pericarditis or COPD exacerbations/asthma attacks.
• Physiology: Inspiration is performed by decreasing intrathoracic pressure. Because the heart is in the thorax, this pressure is transmitted to the heart and causes a bigger gradient between the pressure in the veins outside of the thorax and the right atrium/ventricle. As such, with each inhalation, more blood flows into the right side of the heart. When this occurs, the interventricular septum subtly bulges into the LV cavity, lowering LV filling, and therefore lowering systemic stroke volume/BP. Because the ventricle can normally also expand outward, this septal shift is usually small, and the difference in the blood pressure is therefore small between inspiration and expiration (<10 mmHg). In states in which the ventricle cannot expand outward (e.g. tamponade) or in which the drop in intrathoracic pressure with inspiration is profound (e.g. status asthmaticus), the septal shift is exaggerated and the difference in BP is larger.