Diabetics demand for helpful information June 15 2014 Diabetes patients are up in arms with government for not having effective control mechanisms to ensure people suffering from this untreatable disease are protected from the mixed messages available. diabetesMr Ramadhani Mongi who has lived with diabetes since 1978 told the ‘Sunday News’ exclusively that alternative and traditional medicine practitioners are giving hundreds of people false hope and that more public awareness needs to be disseminated to empower them. “I honestly fail to comprehend how a government can ‘allow’ people to freely advertise on radio, newspapers and banners all over the country that they can treat diabetes and HIV/ AIDS when it is known that this isn’t so and nothing happens to them,” he said. Mr Mongi said that it has become very common of late to hear people say that when you consume aloe vera or a certain nut or fruit it cures diabetes. He said that just like the ‘Babu’ era who lured thousands of people to drink his mystical cup, many people are ruining their kidneys because they react to these messages without making any analysis and jump onto unknown herbs and solutions with the hope of getting a cure to their ailment. “What many people don’t realise is that before the coming of insulin injections, tablets and now the inhaler device that passes insulin directly, extensive research was conducted and so before one can have the courage to say they have a cure, they must have done research,” he said. Mr Mongi said that jokingly he refers to his diabetes as AIDS without the virus and that without giving the masses the right message, diabetes patients in the country are doomed, adding that emphasis should be put on nutrition, on the importance of medicine, on discipline and on the importance of exercise. Concurring with him, the St Laurent Diabetes Centre Managing Director, Dr Mary Mayige told this newspaper that the best challenge that diabetes patients are facing is how to deal with the mixed messages where different doctors prescribe different medicines. Dr Mayige said that apart from the doctors putting restrictions on what to eat and what not to eat, there are also some ‘self’ appointed doctors who while waiting in the queues to see a doctor also help to disseminate distorted messages. “I often hear from my patients that they have been advised to eat green unripe bananas while others are told not to eat maize ugali and should instead consume millet ugali. Basically what people should know is that a diabetic person can eat anything but what matters is how much, the food groups and the nutritional value,” she explained. The specialist said that such messages for people living in an urban area like Dar es Salaam makes it almost impossible to find time to go around hunting for millet flour and even harder to find a restaurant that serves millet ugali. Dr Mayige said that the messages that are needed to reach the people is that diabetic patients can eat anything but with a limit and that the issue of diet is crucial for people with this disease, bearing in mind that it is the sugar intake that needs regulating. Narrating a story of one of her patients, she said that because diabetic patients experience a lot of stress from their loved ones at home on what not to eat, one person came to her almost starved as it had reached a point where she was totally confused on what to eat. The International Reproductive and Child Health Clinic Director, Dr Ali Mzige said that a number of food items have numerous nutrition and medicinal benefits but they can only make a difference if they are incorporated in one’s diet early and not haphazardly upon hearing of their value. Dr Mzige agreed that the messages that come out confuse more than help, giving the example of honey, where he has observed many diabetic patients opting for honey instead of sugar thinking that it is better for them when in actual sense it isn’t. Regarding the mushrooming banners of traditional and alternative practitioners claiming to cure chronic illnesses, the Acting Assistant Director of Natural Medicine and Alternative Treatments, Dr Paulo Mhame said that the health ministry intends to work with the Prime Minister’s Office – Regional Administrative and Local Government ministry closely in enforcing the law. Dr Mhame said that the way the banners are worded and their numbers is a violation to the law and that they will be dealt with. By MASEMBE TAMBWE, Tanzania Daily News
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:27:12 +0000
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