Dumaguete City to hold Diabetes Forum for Nutrition Month celebration

By Jennifer C. Tilos

Monday 18th of June 2012

DUMAGUETE CITY, June 18 (PIA) --Dumaguete City will hold a “Diabetes Forum” among the City Hall employees to promote diabetes awareness campaign on July 20 at 8:00 to 5:00 pm at the Dumaguete City Session Hall in line with the celebration of 'Nutrition Month'.

City Nutrition Action Officer Lourdes Taburaza said, the activity, in coordination with ABBOTT Laboratories, includes lectures on how to manage Diabetes, meal management, physical activity, blood sugar testing, Diabetes Milk Wet-sampling and others.

Taburaza added for the past 30 years, the prevalence of diabetes type 2 has skyrocketed to the point where it is now viewed as an epidemic in the western world. In the Philippines, diabetes type 2 is now the leading cause of death.

From being a once fairly mild and rare ailment of the elderly to becoming a chronic disease, diabetes mellitus affects people of every age, race, and background, and is now a major modern cause of premature death in many countries around the world, with someone dying from diabetes type 2 every 10 seconds worldwide, Taburaza said.

She noted that the illness is the leading cause of kidney failure, lower limb amputation, and blindness, as well as increasing the likelihood of death from heart disease.

Diabetes mellitus is a modern-day scourge. Its gradual debilitating effect destroys one’s quality of life causing untimely death. In most cases Diabetes Type 2 is preventable, she added. (mbcn/JCT/PIA-Negros Oriental)