Diabetes association tackles obesity in Dominica

Students at the Newtown Primary School

Obesity among the Dominican population has caught the attention of the Dominica Diabetes Association (DOMDA).

The organization says it is very alarmed at the rising rate of body mass  among children, youth and the working population.

And so, members of the public are being encouraged to adopt habits that promote good health.

The DOMDA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Health Promotion Unit, has launched a new initiative with primary schools in Dominica, dubbed “Adopt Healthy Habits”  to assist in that regard.

This new campaign was launched at the New Town Primary School on Tuesday with the objectives of achieving a reduction in obesity across all population groups, to increase awareness of the link between consumption of sugars, obesity and non-communicable diseases especially diabetes and to encourage increased consumption of fruits and water.

Marvlyn Birmingham, DOMDA president (l)

 “The ‘Adopt Healthy Habits’ follows on the activities implemented in observance of World Diabetes Day for 2018,” President of the DOMDA, Marvlyn Birmingham, said while addressing the ceremony. “So this Adopt Healthy Habits is a call to action…we are calling on all man, woman and child to adopt habits that promote good health.”

Birmingham said that the DOMDA is also concerned that non-communicable diseases are the main causes of ill health and death among the population.

“The Association is calling on every family, every man, woman and child, every Wednesday put down the sodas, put down the sweetened juices and drink water,” she announced. “We call that our ‘Water Wednesday’ your body will be happy for that, your body will be healthy for that.”

DOMDA is also encouraging members of the public to make Fridays their fruit day and to snack on local fruits. on that day.

Birmingham further stated that in 2009, the Global Health Survey indicated that 10 percent of adolescent age 13 to 15 years were overweight while 26.3 percent were at risk of becoming overweight.

“Of significance, 17.8 percent of those surveyed ate vegetables one or more times per day during the past 30 years while 15 percent ate from fast food restaurants and 57.1 percent drank carbonated drinks,” she stated.

“Clinical Data also revealed that Obesity among children age 0 to 5 years is increasing with a prevalent rate of 9 percent, that was in 2013 and 12 percent in 2011,” Birmingham lamented. “That is again very troubling,” and we need to take steps to tend that rising trend.”

Birmingham, physiotherapist by profession, identified the consumption of energy dense foods and insufficient physical activities as major factors influencing obesity in Dominica.

She pointed out that overweight and obese children are at higher risk of developing serious health problems including type 2 diabetes – which is diabetes of older people, high blood pressure, asthma and other respiratory problems.

“They are also at risk of developing sleep disorders and liver disease,” Birmingham said. “They also suffer from psychological effects such as low self-esteem, depression and social isolation.”

She added, “Very important, childhood obesity – if you are too big as a child – also increases the risk of obesity, non-communicable disease and premature death and disability in adulthood.”

Citing the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation that reducing the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages would also reduce the risk of childhood overweight and obesity, Birmingham stated that such advice is just as applicable to adults.

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17 Comments

  1. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    January 11, 2019

    Okay, whereas I do not want to be ………………… Gary. I think it is unfair to start commenting on something as important, and shut down because of ……. people like Gary; and so I feel obligated to disseminate a little more information to be beneficial to anyone who care to know!

    Continue:

    Testing for urinary glucose level can be a problem; as the patient may have a high renal threshold, which would lead to a negative reading for urinary glucose, when in fact the blood glucose level was high. Fasting blood glucose (sugar) level should be within the normal medical, and scientific limits of 80 mg/100 ml and 120 mg/100 ml.

    A reading above the upper limit suggests either diabetes mellitus, or pituitary or adrenal diabetes. The glucose  tolerance test does not always give a definitive diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, nor can it be depended upon to rule out the disease conclusively in every case:

    To be continued:

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      January 11, 2019

      Continue:

      So, let me continue to deal with the glucose tolerance tests, which is nevertheless, fairly reliable in establishing the presence of diabetes, and is commonly used for that purpose.

      Clinical Manifestations: Diabetes mellitus can present a wide variety of symptoms, ranging from asymptomatic to profound ketosis, and coma. When the disease manifests itself late in life, patients may not know they have diabetes until it is discovered  during a routine examination, or when the symptoms of chronic vascular disease, insidious renal failure, or impaired vision causes some people to seek medical attention.

      The typical symptoms of diabetes mellitus are the three polys-polyuria, polydipsia, and polyphagia. Due to insulin deficiency, the assimilation, and storage of glucose in muscle, adipose tissues, and the liver are greatly diminished. This produces an accumulation of glucose in the blood; hence it creates an increase in its osmolarity. 

      In response to this increased…

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      January 11, 2019

      ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
      Back to the issue: Polyphagia  (increased) appetite is not clearly understood. It is believed to be the result of the body’s effort to increase its supply of energy; regarding food, even though eating more carbohydrates in the absence of sufficient insulin does not meet the energy needs of the cells.

      Fatigue, and muscle weakness occur because the glucose needed for energy simply is not metabolized properly. Weight loss in IDDM patients occurs partly because of the loss of body fluid, and partly because in the absence of sufficient insulin, the body begins to metabolize its own proteins, and stored fat.

      To be continued:

      To the fly, harass me as you wish I still doh want…

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      January 11, 2019

      Continue:

      The oxidation of fat is incomplete, however, and fatty acids are converted into ketone bodies; when the kidney is no longer able to handle the excess ketones the patient develops ketosis. Overwhelming presence  of strong organic acids in the blood lowers the pH and leads to severe, and potentially fatal ketoneacidosis.

      The metabolism of body protein when sufficient amounts of insulin are not available causes an elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN). The reason this occur is because  the nitrogen component of protein is discarded in the blood when the body metabolizes its own proteins to obtain the glucose it needs.

      Diabetic victims (people with diabetes) are prone to infection, delayed healing, and vascular disease; the ease with which poorly controlled diabetic patients develop infections is thought to be due in part to decrease chemotaxis of leukocytes, abnormal phagocyte function, and diminished blood supply because of atherosclerotic changes in the blood vessels.

    • God Helps Those who Helps Themselves
      January 14, 2019

      Ha Ha Ha. He He He He…………telemakac thank you so much for providing such comic relief. He He He
      He……. Also thank you for all the Thumps up!

  2. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    January 11, 2019

    Etiology! There are at least four sets of factors that influence the development of diabetes mellitus: they are genetic factors, heredity, autoimmune, and environmental factors. Type I diabetes is associated with HLA antigens, which cause a defect in the immune system resulting in antibodies which are destructive to beta cells.

    Heredity is a factor in both Type I and Type II diabetes. There is a solid autoimmune component in Type I. It is believed that  viral infections are environmental factors which play a role in Type I; whereas, Obesity, and advancing age are strong environmental factors in Type II.

    I am cutting this short, no point of writing something that might not comprehend; I will simply focus on diagnosis: The most common diagnostic test for diabetes are chemical analyses of the blood. Capillary blood glucose monitoring can be used for screening large  segments of the population. Capillary blood glucose levels have practically replaced analysis of the urine for…

  3. Bob Denis
    January 9, 2019

    When the Horse have bolted out the stable ? citing WHO says nothing . Dominica , per capita, ranks in the top 25 of the World’s obese . Dominica , also ranks very highly in Alcohol consumption . Dominica , has a very high food import bill , these three put together , equates DIABETES . I was practically dumbstruck some years back seeing a fast food outlet directly facing so-called Nature Island GREEN MARKET , Me , an ITAL eater all my life , wept inside . The Chicken have come home to roost , it will become worst before better comes around .

  4. Gary
    January 9, 2019

    Before I read the above story about diabetics, the first thing that came to my mind is Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque, so and behold there is a comment from you. I will be brief with you, and live it to rest, You do not have the knowledge or the capacity to educate anyone regarding what you THINK and BELIEVE about diabetes.

    • God Helps Those who Helps Themselves
      January 10, 2019

      Well said Gary. This fantasists is just a sad joke. He actually believes that Dominicans are interested in all his blah blah blah. Yawn.

  5. caltymas
    January 9, 2019

    We need to keep these programmes ongoing. That is another area Dominica can become an advocate and leading example for. Obesity, Hypertension, Diabetes, Cancer, and many more non-communicable diseases are become a global trend eh.

  6. concernedmom
    January 9, 2019

    its all good that they want to decrease obesity but they need to start in another area. kids arent obese by just what they choose. we must first think that “unhealthy foods” are cheaper and eating healthy can be much more expensive and time consuming. we need to look for ways in decreasing the price of food and the rest shall follow

  7. Dr Clayton Shillingford
    January 8, 2019

    A very necessary programme

  8. Dan Tanner
    January 8, 2019

    All the cereals for children sold in Dominica are sugary. All the candy is loaded with sugar – no non-sugar candy available. The diet is horrible.

    • God Helps Those who Helps Themselves
      January 10, 2019

      Well Tanner, perhaps you should lobby and campaign to stop the country where you are residing, from dumping all their rubbish cereals and other ‘food stuff’ to Dominica and the Caribbean. If Dominicans
      Would consume the foods and beverages that formed the diet of their grandparents and great grandparents instead of the imported rubbish and ‘fast foods’ unleashed on the Caribbean, we would
      not now be talking about obesity and all the other ills that is part of ‘modern life’ . you know very well who is responsible for that!

  9. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    January 8, 2019

    “obesity and non-communicable diseases especially diabetes and to encourage increased consumption of fruits and water.”
     
    You see one word in the quote is evidence that the people talking are not qualified to advise potential diabetics on what diet to maintain. When one advise the consumption of fruits, you might be sending someone with diabetes to their grave. 
     
    I am (hyperglycemic,) I was born a diabetic, I was not aware I was until 1999. I eat everything I heard people  say one should eat; problem the advisers did not know what they were talking about. I was advised to eat fruits and vegetables, which I did until one day I ate an orange which rise my glucose so high it almost sent me into a coma which could have killed me.

    All of the fruits we have in Dominica contains vast amounts of sugar.
     
    Obesity sometimes can be heredity, nevertheless this thing surfaced more recently with the advent of fast food in our country; 
     
     Combined with the starches: Will continue! 

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      January 9, 2019

      One is not always obese simply because their body is large: Obesity is supposed to be accumulation of fat in the body; increase in weight beyond that considered desirable with regard to age, height, and bone structure.

      One  must take into account what is meant by excess body fat. Hence an overweight person is not obese, even though his/her body weight is in excess of the normal range according to a weight if they do not have excess body fat. A large body frame and dense musculature, as in an athlete, can contribute to a person’s weighing more than the weight indicated as optimal on a weight chart.

      In an effort to established more precise guidelines, medical science suggest the following standards:

      Overweight persons weigh 10% (ten percent) more than their optimum weight; whereas an obese person weighs approximately fifteen percent more, and and a grossly obese person weighs twenty per cent, or more over their optimum weight.

      Later I will focus on starches…

      • God Helps Those who Helps Themselves
        January 10, 2019

        Please don’t. You have pontificated enough, and quite frankly you are just boring. If we need medical advice on this or any other health topic we would consult a qualified medical practitioner. In addition if we merely wanted to research the topic, we can always use any of the search engines on the internet. Thus, we don’t need to read the blah blah blah of a fantasists.

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