Honey, a good medicine, but not for diabetics

Honey is medicinalHoney is generally believed to be nutritious and better than sugar. Even medical experts do advise that young children be fed with it. But the belief that people with diabetes should use honey instead of sugar raises more questions than answers. Seye Adeniyi, in this report, X-ray experts’ opinion on the issue.

DIABETES is a worldwide scourge whose incidence and prevalence are giving many medical and traditional medical experts including public health practitioners, a lot of concern. The disease is common in developing countries; young children and adults are developing the dangerous disease at a very alarming rate.

In Nigeria as well as in other developing countries of the world like India, it has been established that part of the reasons for this increase is the rising incidence of obesity in children and adults. Scientific projections also predict that the countries least equipped to deal with the problem of diabetes like Nigeria and India will continue to experience the highest prevalence of the illness by the middle of this century. Therefore, there is an urgent need to pay serious attention to this dangerous disease that has continued to terrorise the health of many Nigerians.

Some experts have even argued that the country does not have accurate data on the citizens living with diabetes. Also, the classification of diabetes into type I and type II, the pathophysiology and pathobiology, insulin secretion, action and resistance, insulin like growth factors, as well as the real definition of each type of diabetes need to be understood before one can talk of managing of the disease.

Diabetes simply means the passage of large quantities of urine and there are two forms of it that can affect human beings. Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide scourge and it means the passage of sweet tasting urine, that is, there are large volumes of sugar in the urine. Diabetes insipidus is another type which means the passage of large volumes of urine but without any sweet taste.

Diabetes mellitus, according to medical reports, afflicted about 250 million people globally as at 2005, and it is expected to affect 385 million people all over the world by the year 2025. This type of diabetes affects the eyes, blood vessels, kidneys and other organs and parts of the body. In fact, anybody experiencing this type of diabetes should not play with his/her health because all the body organs mentioned above are in grave danger at the severe/advanced stage of the disease.

However, it should be noted that diabetes is a disease that can be prevented and which medical experts say we should all do our best to prevent, because once an individual develops it, it cannot be cured but can only be managed. According to Dr. James R. Gavin, the past chairman of the National Diabetes Education Programme and the past president of the American Diabetes Association, there seems to be an explosion the prevalence of diabetes all over the world, but we are also experiencing a similar surge in our knowlege about the disease. “Yes, diabetes can be prevented or delayed in some people, and I am not talking about surgery or a miracle pill.

Clinical research continues to show that by cutting back on the amount of calories and saturated fat you eat daily, being physically active for at least 30 minutes on most days and losing a bit of weight can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes. However, diabetes does not go away once you have it, so it is better to work hard at preventing it in the first place”, Dr. Gavin advised during a special interview with to the EBONY Magazine in the March 2006 education.

Corroborating this statement was Dr. Olatunde Odusan, a consultant physician at the Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital, Ogun State, while talking to members of the public in Abeokuta, Ogun State recently during a phone-in programme. He also emphasised that diabetes cannot be cured but can only be managed once a person develops it.

The medical expert said diabetes is indeed a silent disease like hypertension and many people first become aware that they have it when they develop one of its many life-threatening complications. This is what Dr. James Gavin also said when he asserted that patients with diabetes might be rushed into emergency rooms after having either a heart attack or stroke, or other complications like uncontrolled high blood pressure, kidney problems, sexual dysfunction, dental disease, pregnancy complications, or progressive problems with blurred vision and loss of eyesight which are often the first warning signs.

When Youth Health asked the doctor on phone what could be the actual causes of the disease, Dr. Odusan said everybody should know that you are what you eat and stated that sugary and high-fat content foods should be avoided to prevent diabetes. He also advised that moderation and caution should be applied in the society today, in the ways and manner we drink soft drinks which he warned are also dangerous to children’s health. The expert also cautioned parents to be careful in the way they expose young children to junks or refined food and reduce the amount of sugary foods or sugar-coated snacks they give to children.

The doctor who is also an active member of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter cautioned those who are in the habit of stigmatising people living with diabetes to stop it, adding that diabetes has nothing to do with witchraft and wizardry as it is the belief of many people.
“Using derogratory or embarrassing words or statements like diabetes patient is very wrong. The right thing to say or the better way to call or address people experiencing diabetes is to say people living with diabetes just like saying people living with HIV instead of saying HIV/AIDS patients,” he warned.

On how one can guard against diabetes, Dr. Odusan said one of the precautionary measures is for people to be checking their urine every time. A normal urine and blood-sugar level should not taste sugary but it should be a little bit sour, adding that normal urine contains salt, but once an individual develops diabetes, the urine would contain a high quantity of sugar and then taste sugary.

Too much consumption of fast foods also exposes or predisposes an individual to diabetes. “The fat content of these koyakoya food (fast foods) is what is dangerous for health and not the carbonhydrate in the fast food. Fat is bad particularly when it is central, that is, when it is stored in the abdomen. We should know that abdominal fat is dangerous and people with pot-belly should do something about their big tummies if not for anything, but for the fear of diabetes,“ he counselled.

Other symptoms of diabetes include fever, blurred vission, regular or presistent headache, sleeplness i.e. walking up like five to ten times before the day break. Also having hot sensational felings in the legs are things that must be investigated in hospitals. Undue weakness and unexplainable loss of body weight are also some of the warning signs of diabetes. Does that mean diabetes cannot kill if one knows what to do about it? Dr. Odusan said diabetes will only kill if the people living with it practise or do wrong things to aggravate its complications.

Some precautionary measures to observe in order to manage diabetes effectively include staying away from bread, avoiding fat (but diabetics can consider monounsaturated fat which is better than other forms of fats. For instance, it is advisable that they take only one-teaspoonful of fat).

What about using pure, natural honey as a substitute for sugar? The consultant physician said people living with diabetes should not even think of consuming honey or move near it whether the honey is pure or diluted. The reason for this is that honey is highly dangerous for diabetics contrary to the belief of many people.

“Though honey is nutritious and medicinal, and it is very useful in the dressing of wounds, a common practice in hospitals, nonetheless, honey is very dangerous for people lving diabetes because it is loaded with glucose and fructose and when broken down during the process of digestion it produces sugar. Honey is good, I must emphasise, it is even a good medicine, but when you have diabetes, please stay away from it,” he warned.

All the above precautions are what the diabetics needs to stay healthy and manage the disease effectively without exercising any fear of death. Another method for managing the disease effectively is to eat good amounts of fruits and vegetables. People living with diabetes should also be engaged in physical activities (exercise) by walking for at least 150 minutes a week i.e. walking for 30 minutes a day. Regular visits to their doctors to take their drugs and have their blood sugar level tested will also prolong their lives. “Diabetes can be prevented, controlled and effectively managed, but up till today, it has no cure.”

Furthermore, one important thing to know about effective management of diabetes is not to spiritualise it. Diabetics should not refuse to take their drugs because of their religious beliefs or spiritual alertness and inclination. For instance, diabetics should not say “I reject the disease in Jesus name or in Mohammed’s name or otherwise.” Diabetes is not an illness that one should spiritualise to the extent of neglecting the drugs meant for its management. Faith does work, and enhances healing processes. Remember, if you reject diabetes on Sunday without using your drugs, it may come back on Monday,” Dr Odusan advised.