Diabetes (A Thief in the Night)

Written by BPNews Team | 15 October 2011

The word "destiny" has been used so many times in romance novels to imply that there is such a thing as a soul-mate, it has been used in the bible to imply the sovereignty of God, and it has been used in the music industry to rake in hefty profits (think Victor Wood). But destiny, when used in terms of health statistics connotes a feeling of doom, a feeling that nothing can be done, putting people into a fatalistic sense of inactivity that makes the proclamation a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The future of Diabetes in the Philippines is a gloomy one, fraught with many obstacles in a dangerously downhill dirtroad. And the onslaught of the western lifestyle seems to be pushing us closer to the dead-end cliff. It has been called by many names in an attempt to illustrate its critical nature. It has even been called a "ticking time-bomb". We probably won't witness a nuclear explosion or the sort. But the fact that every day, diabetes claims the life of more and more Filipinos, whether directly or indirectly, the label may be justified.

The health indicator statistics of the Department of Health (DOH) has found that diabetes is the 9th leading cause of death in the Philippines, affecting 1 out of 25 Filipinos. About 3.36 million Filipinos are affected by the disease today and is expected to rise to about 8 million in 20 years. (bio-medicine.org) And so, while the country's population continuously grows together with the percentage of those affected by diabetes, what we have is an exponential growth in the number of those on whom diabetes is pressing down.

Diabetes has been featured in this column so many times before but it may never be enough even if featured every week. Because aside from the many facts known about diabetes, there is an endless stream of knew research findings that either strengthen previous beliefs or knock them down cold. For instance, the normal FBS (fasting blood sugar) that used to be pegged at

Our importation of the American lifestyle comes with the attachments of the high carbo and fat diet, the lack of exercise, and the fast paced day to day living. From our grandparents' lifestyle of "feeding the chicken" mornings and "kerosene lamp" nights, we have imbibed the Americans' "breakfast-on-the-go, rush hour" mornings and late night gimikan, TV, or Facebook evenings. Add to that the Starbucks afternoons and an english accent that passes through the nose and pretty soon we might start growing blond hair. And a beer belly of course.

But kidding aside, diabetes is silently creeping into our lives like Jesus' proverbial thief in the night. But while the thief in the night strikes, then leaves, diabetes stays inside and slowly robs us of most of our belongings without our knowing it. Many discover the illness when it's too late. And even when it's too late, this thief stays and keeps robbing us right before our very eyes.

It is already present in the genes when we are born. If both parents have diabetes, then the chances become double. Even in those without family history of diabetes, today's lifestyle and diet is enough to bring many Filipinos to a diabetic life. And with today's fast food, fast cars, and fast-paced life joining hands against our well-being, diabetes has the upper hand.

This does not mean, however, that we will just resign our fate to this disease destined to bring about our demise. With the internet at the tip of our fingers, we can learn anything we want about diabetes and everything we can do to stop its invasion. As I said, this column is not enough to cover everything there is about diabetes. What this column does is expose the big picture. It's like a frontpage headline story that contains one paragraph. And then at the bottom is the instruction to "turn to page 5, 7, 11 and 29". Whether we will be satisfied with the one paragraph we read or whether we will turn the page and read on, is entirely up to us. And this extra knowledge we will get may simply spell the difference between letting the thief take everything we own or driving him away once and for all.