It is one of the main public health problems worldwide, but false beliefs about medication and life habits enhance its effects
Andrea stopped consuming all kinds of fruits after the recommendation of a friend who also has diabetes.She told her that a nutritionist had told an acquaintance of her husband.
The information that passes in voice, deforming a little in each ear, can be the most harmful, especially if the matter addressed is the treatment of a disease, such as diabetes.The myths around them have contributed to enhance their risks.
For specialists, myths around diabetes are preventing it from being in a timely and adequate way.Dr. Leticia García Morales, head of the Department of Endocrinology and the Diabetes Clinic of the Children's Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez (Himfg), points out that a great myth around this disease is related precisely to food.
Life habits
“You get to think that the diabetic patient has to significantly restrict his diet.This is a lie.Diabetic feed must be well balanced and contain the same proportion of macronutrients as that of the individual who does not have this condition, that is: a healthy diet, ”says the specialist and explains that the problem of this disease is that the cells do notThey can nurture because insulin is what makes nutrients enter, then if the main source of energy is removed, what is caused is to put into severe malnutrition to cells and in terrible wear and tear to the organism.
García Morales says that this balance in the diet consists of 55 0 60% carbohydrates or sugars, but of the so -called complexes, which are the good for the body and that they are contained in fruits, vegetables, cereals and legumes.The diet must also contain from 15 to 20% protein, that is, products of animal origin;as well as 20 to 25 % of fats, preferably vegetables.Specifies that if we all adjust our diet based on these percentages, the number of cases of diabetes would decrease considerably.
“The only thing that the diabetic patient should not eat is what we call simple sugars: all foods that are added with sugar, but this should not really eat the patient with diabetes or any other person because we know that for everyone,Children and adults, their effects are very bad for health, ”he says and emphasizes that simple sugars and saturated fats should be limited, but also open the step without any fear of products from the Mexican traditional culinary legacy, such as the beans, tortillasand vegetables.
unfounded fears
Another close myth on the origin of the disease is that it can be caused by some stressful event."In no way will diabetes be caused by some scare or alarm situation," he emphasizes and explains that what happens is that adrenaline discharge is a normal defense mechanism in a stressful situation for the individual and it generates more dispositionof blood sugar to, for example, run faster to a threat.
“More blood sugar is released and the glucose level rises a bit, but if we don't have diabetes, it will not cause it.What can happen is probably that in the faceStrong emotions will not generate diabetes. ”
Obesity is the main risk factor, although not necessarily all obese will be diabetic, or all diabetics are obese.The doctor says that due to the complexity of the disease, there are families with aGenetic factor so strong that although the patient is not obese, bad habits are enough to develop the disease, however there are also obese who never have it.He emphasizes that why it is not clear, because in the case of children there are those who, regardless of the degree of obesity, generate diabetes very fast.
“A very personal theory is that we see more and more than the child's development in the uterus has to do with his future ability to produce or not insulin properly, that is, children who had greater factors that altered the programming of the programming of theInsulin production in the pancreas from the prenatal stage are probably the most predisposed. ”
After detected the disease, the patient must get used to check his glucose and stick to the indicated treatment, which generally implies the administration of insulin, however the doctor points out that in this area is the probably more important myth that has grown aroundDiabetes, which insulin can affect health.
“Insulin is an indispensable hormone for life and that we must all produce normally.Precisely when we do not generate it, or does not act properly, it gives us diabetes.Thus, we must conclude that insulin is not harmful, on the contrary, it is very beneficial to health, but fear of this substance means that it often tends to reject treatment and even that the adult patient does not go with the doctorfor the fear of being indicated in their treatment. ”
In this way, specialists often endure with patients with the administration of insulin, but very interested in alternatives without any scientific support."Another myth that actually encompasses many more is the one that dictates that there are many ways to remove diabetes, all this" magical "medicine that is suddenly announced everywhere."
Due to the deep impact of the disease in our country, the so -called miracle products prevail everywhere promising to cure the disease.“We must be aware that once diabetes are installed, it will not be cured.It will not return to the production and good action of insulin at the level of the cells and the pancreas, this is not recovered, but good control of the disease is achieved many years without complications can be lived. ”
For the endocrinologist it is very important to emphasize that there is no part of the world a product that heals diabetes.
“There are many alternatives in research, which are currently being carried out in different parts of the world, including our country, but none of them can be considered the cure of diabetes and suddenly news appears that seem to announce it, but they are only situations in experimentation,that they have not yet turned out, ”he points out and adds that the day this happens there will be a Nobel Prize in between because diabetes is the most important global disease and that is killing more people in the world but mainly because of the bad control of the disease.