• Question: how can yoyu help people with diabiteies

    Asked by munaiba to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 15 Jun 2011:


      Diabetes is an inability to make or respond to insulin. Insulin helps regulate blood sugar level. If you can’t respond to insulin, your cells don’t know to take up sugar from blood and then the cells get starved.

      To help, diabetics must be careful with their diet so they do not have too much sugar getting stuck in their blood. They are also often given insulin so the cells know to take the sugar up. However, it can still be hard to get the balance of sugar in the blood just right, and diabetics can suffer from other diseases over the years like diabetic retinopathy (a form of blindness).

      Finally, researchers are trying different ways of improving diabetes symptoms or stopping the disease. I know most about childhood diabetes, which is caused by the immune system destroyed the insulin-making cells in the pancreas (the beta cells). Because this type of diabetes is genetic, children at risk are monitored to try to catch the disease early, which will improve symptoms. There are also experimental therapies being developed such as ‘islet transplants’ where donated beta cells are transplanted into the diabetic so that they can produce there own insulin.

    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 15 Jun 2011:


      Hopefully we will be in a position to prevent diabetes so we wont have to treat patients. Some types of diabetes are preventable such as Type 2 which is brought on either by a lack of insulin or lack or response to insulin. certain groups of people are at a higher risk of diabetes and diet and life style choice may see them go on to have diabetes. For some of these people, diabetes can be prevented through changes to diet and lifestyle.

      Remember, prevention is probably better than cure and there isn’t always a magic pill to make disease go away.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 15 Jun 2011:


      If you have a friend that has diabetes then one way you can help them is look out for them and carry a supply of emergency chocolate! If they suddenly feel unwell, there’s a good chance that their blood sugar levels have dropped and you can make them feel better by giving them some chocolate to eat! Diabetics can’t eat chocolate normally, so they couldn’t have it all the time, it’s just for emergencies! It’s also really important that diabetics stay hydrated. So make sure they drink water if they are feeling poorly.

      The food that a diabetic eats is really important. They need food that releases carbohydrates slowly into their bodies and there is a scale that can help you figure this out called the Glycaemic index (GI). Low GI foods are best for diabetics like: cereals, fresh fruit, pasta, noodles etc.

      Here is a really great website with lots of information:

      http://www.diabetes.org.uk/

      It even has recipes so you can make special diabetic treats!

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 15 Jun 2011:


      Great answers from the others. I’d add to it that you should also be supportive and understanding and never make fun of them because of it.

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:


      Some great answers here already.

      I have a few friends who are diabetic and the best thing you can do is to support them when they need it.

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