14 November: World Diabetes Day

Pubblicato il

Thursday, 14 November 2019

Argomento

Retina

Prevention and control: the winning strategies to avoid complications and maintain a good quality of life and vision.

On 14 November 2019, the annual appointment with the World Diabetes Day, World Diabetes Awareness Day, which this year has as its theme 'Diabetes: protect your family', precisely to emphasise the central role that the family has in the care, and not only, of the person with diabetes.
The date 14 November was chosen because it celebrates the birth of the Canadian physiologist Frederick Grant Bantingwho, together with Charles Herbert Best, discovered in 1921 theinsulinwhose use has transformed diabetes from a fatal to a controllable disease.
The world anniversary was established in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and theWorld Health Organisation (WHO) in response to the increase in diagnosed cases of this disease.
According to the IDF there are 425 million people living with diabetes today, a number that could rise to 629 million by 2045.
Yet, with a few simple actions one could lower the risk of diabetes and prevent over 50% of type 2 diabetes cases.
The aim of World Diabetes Day is to educate on prevention and encourage good management of diabetes and its complications, including diabetic retinopathy and the oedematous form, diabetic macular oedema, which is among the most frequent causes of impaired visual function in diabetic patients.
Physical activity and diet, say the diabetologists, 'are the two cornerstones of prevention: that is why it is important to keep talking about it, especially to families, the true cradle of prevention'. The 70% of premature deaths, in fact, 'is largely linked to an incorrect lifestyle,' conclude the experts, 'from the teenage years onwards'.
More than 60 countries are taking part in this campaign and, in Italy, by the Sid (Italian Society of Diabetology) meetings are planned in the squares and shopping centres of major cities with blood glucose measurements, debates in schools, and events to encourage physical activity. On the theme of Diabetes Day 2019, Sid has decided to focus on the role of the family in food choices. Especially in the case of diabetes, it can in fact be said that health begins at the table, given the close link between quantity, diet composition and the onset of type 2 diabetes, very often due precisely to errors in diet.
Among the planned initiatives, as a sign of hope for people living with this disease and those at risk of developing it, it has been decided that on 14 November various monuments around the world will be lit up in blue.