Search Results for: diabetes

May 11, 2022 By Anusha Subramanian Leave a Comment

Why Self Care Is Important While Managing Diabetes

How often have we come across friends or family members with diabetes, taking the condition lightly, being happily dependent on prescribed medications? But, the fact is that diabetes can be controlled or reversed if adhered to self care along with the prescribed medications.

There have been many cases of individuals managing diabetes well by participating in their own care along with lifestyle modifications. Despite this fact, compliance or adherence to these activities has been found to be low, especially when looking at long-term changes.

Some Interesting Statistics on Diabetes

According to the most recent International Diabetes Federation (IDF) data, 537 million people, approximately 10% of all people aged 20-79% in the world, were living with diabetes as of 2021.

Statistics show that while the world diabetes rate is growing at 57%, India is leaping ahead at 74%. In India, 10.4% of the adult population has diabetes. India has a diabetic population of 85 million and almost 49% of the population go undetected. Another 50 million are in the developing stage of diabetes. The country’s national average of HbA1c stands at an alarming rate of 8.5%. Given all these statistics, no wonder India has been labelled as the Diabetes Capital of the World.

As per GOQii’s latest IndiaFit Report, Over the last 5 years, people suffering from lifestyle diseases, namely Diabetes, have seen an increase from 7.9% in 2017 to 13.2% in 2021. The Report indicates that men have greater rates of diabetes at 14.5% vs Women. The study was done among over 5 million users.

Diabetes is influenced by a number of variables which include a bad diet, stress, and lack of physical exercise and quality sleep. Obesity, advancing age, and a poor diet are all factors that contribute to Diabetes. Given the above data, and the fact that self care along with guidance and holistic lifestyle modification are key for managing diabetes, GOQii has launched this Diabetes Care programme.

What Is the GOQii Diabetes Care Program?

The GOQii Diabetes Care Program aims at helping people with Diabetes take ownership of their health. For instance, monitoring blood glucose levels regularly helps people with Diabetes adapt their diet and exercise, monitor the effects of Diabetes medications & understand the impact of stress & illness on blood sugar levels. The patients will be handheld on their journey with personalised advice by a GOQii Coach on Nutrition, Physical Activity, Medication compliance by Nutritionists and Regular Diagnostics – all leading towards helping the patients reduce their HbA1C levels.

The programme is priced at Rs 6999/- and comes with the offering of a GOQii Smart Vital Plus device, a connected Glucometer – Contour Plus One with 10 test strips, doctor consultation, 2 HbA1c tests and 6 months of personalised diabetes coaching. The price of the programme is extremely affordable, given that if one has to buy these various components separately, it will cost an individual Rs 14,999/-

Once enrolled into the Diabetes Care Programme, the patient gets trusted and trained assistance for the Diabetes Journey to improve diabetes outcomes i.e. lower blood sugar levels, HbA1c and lipid levels, among other metabolic parameters which include losing weight, reducing BMI and improving energy levels.

Our Founder & CEO Vishal Gondal says, “We are elated to launch the first of its kind ‘Diabetes Care programme’. GOQii is integrating personalised, real-time and actionable insights into the daily lives of people living with Diabetes, enabling improved quality of life and clinical outcomes. Our collaborations across the healthcare spectrum will help people with Diabetes access our self-care solution wherever they are; at home, chemist, medical clinic or at a diagnostic centre. This programme is a unique gamified approach to diabetes care. The concept of incentivising with gold to sustain lifestyle modification and adherence in managing chronic conditions such as diabetes is a novel patient centric approach.”

GOQii’s vision is to help people with diabetes manage it better and take accountability of their health with external help and expert guidance to improve their quality of life and outcomes

As part of digital therapeutics, GOQii is closely working with various Pharmaceutical Companies, Hospitals, Medical Device Providers such as Ascensia Diabetes Care India, SRL Diagnostics, Pharmarack Technologies – Pharmacy availability facilitators, to provide Integrated Digital Therapeutics solutions in Diabetes Management and also across therapy areas like NAFLD, GERD, Diabetes, Obesity, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Mental health, Stroke management, Cardiac Care, DVT, Long Covid Care, Cancer Care. All these programs are delivered in partnership with the Healthcare Providers via doctors and are monitored closely for patient engagement and clinical outcomes.

GOQii gains an upper edge in digital therapeutics as our smart wearable devices also have a CDSCO (Indian FDA) registration as a medical device and all data generated by GOQii devices is acceptable for clinical needs. Furthermore, GOQii data collection is subjected to HIPAA, GDPR and other relevant data protection regulation, as well as ISO 27799 – the foremost standard for information security management in health.

Managing Diabetes by yourself can be extremely difficult because of the many factors it involves. But with expert guidance, motivation and monitoring, you could not only manage diabetes but reverse it as well! It’s all about adherence to your Coach’s advice, compliance with your medication and your sheer determination to defeat diabetes!

You can sign up for the GOQii Diabetes Care Program here: https://store.goqii.com/diabetescare

Together, let’s #BeTheForce & #DefeatDiabetes!

November 13, 2021 By GOQii 3 Comments

Diet & Exercise: How Timanna Gudi Battled Diabetes

Access to medication is easy! We live in a day and age where even a sneeze can be seen as a good enough reason to swallow a pill. The number of those pills only increase with time as health deteriorates. The more pills you swallow, the more you realize that they aren’t working. Without intervention, without data or without trying, you never realize that a pill is not the answer, it is your lifestyle! In the face of adversity, change is imperative. Here’s how 49 yr old Timanna Gudi made a positive U-turn!

Hailing from Hubli, Karnataka, this mechanical engineer by qualification worked with an MNC as a managing director. His job responsibilities and efforts placed immense stress on his wellbeing. Realizing this, he knew he had to quit. He did so 5 years back and started his own business. However, this did not change anything and his health problems continued.

Battling Diabetes

In 2008, Timanna Gudi was diagnosed with Diabetes. This was just one part of his struggle. Along with diabetes, he had to face hypertension and high cholesterol as well! He was immediately put on medication and with every visit to the doctor, his dosage only seemed to increase. He would have to get tests and visit the doctor every 3 months while his doctor only increased the number of medicines. With no concrete solution in sight, Timanna was only confused.

Making Lifestyle Modifications to Fight Diabetes

He happened to come across a talk by B M Hedge, Dean of Manipal Medical College and a renowned doctor. He said that people shouldn’t be visiting doctors for lifestyle diseases like diabetes and cholesterol. The medicines they need are available in their kitchens. Of course, medical assistance is required in case of an emergency but it must be supplemented by a healthy lifestyle. This got Timanna thinking…

He had lost his Dad and his elder sister to diabetes in spite of them being on heavy medications like him. He told himself that if his condition is a disorder, there should be a way to bring it in order! This very thought became the turning point which would pivot his life to balance and wellbeing.

He came to Pune in 2011 and joined a therapy called Freedom from Diabetes. He managed to get rid of all his medicines in a matter of 40 days through diet control and some light exercise. From then on, he began advocating his approach to everyone who was affected by the same medical condition as his. He gave them hope that they too could change!

Joining GOQii and Being the Force

In 2018, he bought some equipment to perform exercises at home. He followed YouTube channels and performed his routine accordingly. However, he ended up with a frozen shoulder due to an incorrect position. This kept him from exercising for about 8-9 months.

In March 2019, a friend introduced him to GOQii. He was intrigued with the idea of coaches demonstrating exercises LIVE on the app. The GOQii app solved two of his needs i.e. exercise and nutrition. He was getting expert advice from topics relating to a healthy diet, lifestyle, meditation and so on. He saw GOQii as an opportunity to get back into routine!

He joined during the India Steps Challenge and began competing, clocking in 6000 steps a day. He initially started with basic walking and increased his target to 12,000 steps after he invited a few of his friends. Due to walking too much, he began losing a lot of weight and was underweight by 7kg. He was asked to stop walking and jogging completely. To keep the momentum of his physical activity going, he began strength training in order to build muscle mass.

He is a regular on GOQii Play. He watches Coach Tufail Qureshi, Coach Alistrair Fernandes and Coach Shweta Kariya, following the workout routines demonstrated by them on a daily basis. As his work requires him to travel often, he carries a resistance band in his luggage as suggested by Play Coaches. He feels that a resistance band is a handy equipment that can be used to target any body part!

Being lactose intolerant, he shifted to a vegan diet. This essentially means that he avoids milk, curd and cheese. He avoids processed foods like bread, biscuits, etc. He begins his day with a glass of green smoothie which is a wholesome blend of raw Spinach (Palak) or any other leafy vegetable coupled with Betel leaf, Pudina (Mint), Tulsi (Holy Basil), Curry Leaves, Cinnamon Powder, Black Pepper and one fruit along with soaked nuts and seeds.

He follows this up with 45mins to an hour of exercise. His breakfast is more protein-based which includes a dal-based Cheela or sprouts and salad. In between meals, he grabs a spoonful of any seeds or a cup of green tea. His Lunch includes a Roti, one bowl each of dal, vegetable and raw salad. He also drinks Apple Cider Vinegar, which he believes has helped in keeping his body more alkaline. His family mostly uses cold pressed virgin coconut oil instead of refined oil.

Opting For Natural Methods Instead of Medicines

Timanna Gudi reiterates that commitment is absolutely necessary. There is no way you can cheat or give in to temptations. He strongly believes that Diabetes is a medical condition which should be eradicated from India.

He says, “The medicines never stop and you just keep losing your vital organs to it slowly. However, everybody is different and not all solutions suit everyone. You need to go test and try before settling down with what suits you.”

He in fact, also got rid of his Acute Bronchitis, something which he suffered from since childhood which required him to use inhalers. He did so by practicing Pranayama (You too can reap the benefits of this wonderful practice. Here are 6 Variations of Pranayama and their Benefits)

In the course of his time fighting diabetes, he has also helped his younger brother reduce his sugar levels. He feels it is his duty to share the knowledge he has gained from his experience combating lifestyle disorders.

Timanna feels GOQii is a fantastic platform with lot of resources that can benefit anyone and everyone. He regularly shops on the GOQii Health Store and advocates the fact that you get good options at competitive rates.

We wish Timanna Gudi the best for his journey. If this story inspired you or if you are fighting your own uphill battle against a lifestyle disease, share your thoughts in the comments below! To help you manage diabetes effectively, reach out to our experts by subscribing for GOQii’s Diabetes Care Program here: https://store.goqii.com/diabetescare

#BeTheForce

November 13, 2017 By Dr Akshat Chadha Leave a Comment

Diabetes – (Die-in-bits OR NOT)

So I started writing this blog almost a year back and could not complete it in this one year because I felt everybody knows everything about diabetes and what was the point of repeating the same things over and over again. Then, I realized, that this World Diabetes Day instead of the same diabetes facts, what we really need is a real patient case and scenarios to make everybody understand how intense and life-threatening, diabetes as a disease can be.

I remember long back we had a worried parent of a 6year old come into our clinic saying that his son’s urine had ants in it. After taking a proper history we realized that it was not ants in his urine but sugar in the kid’s urine left on the commode which was attracting the ants. Few blood tests later the child was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. That’s Type 1 diabetes, the type which is most commonly seen in the younger kids. Basically, the pancreas barely produces any insulin in these kids which leads to sugar flowing through the blood and causing diabetes.

Diabetes is a group of metabolic disorders in which the person has high blood glucose (blood sugar), either because insulin production is inadequate, or because the body’s cells do not respond properly to insulin or both.

Causes can range from autoimmune destruction, heredity or positive family history, insulin resistance to various infections like pancreatitis. But, the main cause or the root cause of Diabetes especially type 2 which affects mostly the adult population has to be a poor lifestyle.

Diabetes-like we all know can easily go unnoticed, even when a patient has already been diagnosed. Because of this, unfortunately, many don’t pay attention to the possible terrible problems that can happen if your diabetes is not under control.

I remember a case at the beginning of my career, a 40year old man having diabetes for more than 10 years came to our clinic with a complain that he had wound on his foot which was not healing. He knew his sugars were high but still wasn’t taking care. We started him off on the required medicines and within 10 days of better sugars, the wound had healed. He had no memory of how he had hurt himself. After 4months the same patient came back with an even bigger wound but unfortunately this time it had spread so much that his foot could not be saved and had to be amputated.

Does it make sense being so careless with your health and losing your foot just because your sugars are not controlled?

diabetes 1

Let’s discuss the complications of uncontrolled diabetes which can affect almost every organ of your body. Most commonly Diabetes affects your heart, kidneys, eyes, feet and your nerves (neuropathy) at varying degrees. Apart from these, diabetics have a higher risk of infections and dental problems. It is difficult to say what gets affected first but easier to remember that if your blood sugars are not under control, you have set yourself on the path to trouble.

diabetes image 3

During my internship, I got a call from a friend that his dad had a heart attack and they were shifting him to the same hospital where I was working. Fortunately, that month I was posted in the ICU itself so I was happy that I was going to be able to monitor his dad. Just on the opposite bed, there was another man of the same age who had suffered a heart attack the morning before. Almost two weeks later, my friend’s dad was still in the ICU whereas the other man was on his way to get discharged. Another 2 weeks went by but unfortunately, we didn’t see much signs of improvement and eventually we lost him in the next few days. The only big difference between the two patients was that my friend’s dad had uncontrolled diabetes!!

Diabetes dramatically increases the risk of various cardiovascular problems, including coronary artery disease with chest pain (angina), heart attack, stroke and narrowing of arteries (atherosclerosis). If you have diabetes, you are more likely to have heart disease or stroke.

Your body and your health need a lot of care, attention and need to be your first priority not only at the time when you are sick but more when you are well. The point of this blog is not to scare you but to make you aware, and part of that awareness is knowing how to be able to help yourself. Follow the below tips and start your healthy journey today!

diabetes image 4

Tips to prevent or live well with diabetes

Maintain a healthy weight and look out for belly fat
Make healthy food choices
Be physically active (gradually increase everyday steps and try and reach the 10,000 target)
Monitor your sugar levels regularly and keep a check on your blood pressure
Get your full body tests done once a year
Sleep well and work to manage daily stress
Quit smoking
If on medications, make sure you take them regularly

November 14, 2016 By Dr Ashwin Nanda 2 Comments

DECODING DIABETES

Last month, I had 2 patients on the same day diagnosed with Diabetes- one an overweight 34 year old IT professional and the other a 6-year-old girl. The reason, why this incident comes to my mind today is because they were both diabetics but, had different diabetes and even their course of treatments was different.

But, the first question I was asked in both the cases was whether they will need to be put on insulin injections immediately. Well, this is a common question asked by patients. To understand this condition better, let me try and explain a bit about the different types of diabetes on the basis of which the required treatment is normally recommended.

Diabetes is a group of metabolic disorders in which the person has high blood glucose (blood sugar), either because insulin production is inadequate, or because the body’s cells do not respond properly to insulin or both. Common symptoms of either diabetes are unexplained weight loss, excess hunger, and excess thirst and delayed wound healing.

Today, I would like to take you through specifically 3 major types of diabetes namely, Type 1, Type 2 and gestational Diabetes.

Let’s talk about

Type 1 Diabetes: is caused by a loss or malfunction of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, called beta cells. Damage to beta cells results in absence or insufficient production of insulin. Most cases of Type 1 Diabetes have an autoimmune basis in which immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys its own beta cells. These cases are detected either in childhood or teenage years. There are many theories about what causes type 1 diabetes like autoimmune disease, viral infection, genetic predisposition and environmental factors may also play a role.

Whatever be the cause, this missing insulin has to be replaced as insulin is necessary to sustain life. It is responsible for entry of glucose into the body cells from where the glucose is further utilized for energy and other activities. This glucose which is not entering the cells is circulating in the blood which gets detected as high blood sugar. The replacement insulin is administered by injection using a syringe or an insulin pump. Thanks to the invention of Insulin clubbed with a healthy lifestyle, a Type 1 diabetic is able to lead a happy good quality life.

Coming to Type 2 diabetes most often than not your tissues will be resistant to insulin, so the insulin is being produced but unfortunately not being utilized properly. It is the most common form of diabetes worldwide and accounts for 90-95% of the cases.

Insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes means the signal insulin gives to a cell is weakened. This results in less glucose uptake by muscle and fat cells and a reduction in insulin mediated activities inside cells.

Risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes include an Unhealthy Lifestyle (being physically inactive or less active, erratic food and sleep habits, stress), being overweight or obese and importantly family history of diabetes in close relatives.

We have ample medicine combinations for type 2 diabetes like tablets which keep the blood sugar under control. But if sufficient sugar control is not achieved in spite of oral medications and a healthy lifestyle, then insulin might be required for further management.

Another type of Diabetes I would like to talk about is Gestational diabetes which basically refers to diabetes diagnosed during pregnancy.

Pregnancy hormones can interfere with the way insulin works in the mother’s body which can lead to elevated blood glucose levels during pregnancy. Women are typically screened for gestational diabetes at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy, however, women who have risk factors may be screened earlier.

Risk factors for developing gestational diabetes include having a family history of diabetes, being overweight, or over 28 years old. Blood glucose control during pregnancy is critical as elevated maternal glucose levels can lead to pregnancy complications and pose risks to the health of the baby. Gestational diabetes is likely to recur during subsequent pregnancies.

Gestational diabetes requires specialized treatment for the rest of the pregnancy. After the pregnancy is over, most women will have normal blood sugars again; however, up to 20-50 % can develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years. Regular screening is recommended.

A study conducted on people at risk of type 2 diabetes, it was seen that those who lost just 7% of their weight and exercised about 30 minutes a day cut their risk of diabetes by nearly 60%. In a nutshell, irrespective of the type of diabetes the best prevention or diabetes management strategy is to eat healthy, stay active and keep a check on your weight.

Reference: University of California, San Francisco – Diabetes online Education website.

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