WORLD DIABETES DAY 2019 (DIABETES AWARENESS WALK)
Rotary International District 3232 partnered with Madhav Diabetes Centre in association with Rotary Club of Chennai Noble Hearts, to create awareness on Non Communicable Diseases (NCD’s). The awareness walk was flagged off from Bougainvillea Park at 6.30 a.m by Dist. Governor, RI Dist 3232, Rtn G. Chandramohan. Students from Valliammal School (Anna Nagar), Rotaractors, Rotarians Volunteers & District Officials walked along with the general public to create an awareness about the challenge posed by NCD’s such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, cancer etc.
Hand-outs were distributed to the public, and participants held placards with eye catching slogans such as, “Walk to postpone diabetes.”, “Reduce fatty foods, Reduce cholesterol!”, “Stop smoking, Reduce the risk of Heart Attack!”. The walkathon ended at Madhav Diabetes Centre with a meeting where Dr M. C. Deepak, Senior Consultant (Diabetologist), Madhav Diabetes Centre, and, Director- Community Service – Health, RC Chennai Noble Hearts educated the public about the burden of non-communicable diseases. The centre is offering blood sugar testing, S. Creatinine (kidney) & ECG in addition to lifestyle counselling free of cost till Nov 30th,2019.
India is the Diabetes capital of the world. As of today, data from Indian Council of Medical Research says that 1 in 6 people are known diabetics and an equal number have undetected diabetes. 35% of the population are suffering from Non Communicable Diseases.
Dr M. C. Deepak said, “These days even people without a family history of diabetes are prone to get diabetes due to their sedentary lifestyle. The young generation working in the IT Industry with more stress and lesser sleep along with their unhealthy food habits and lack of exercise are at a higher risk of developing diabetes.
Small changes in lifestyle can give big rewards. Even healthy people can adopt small changes in their lifestyle. 300 minutes of walking per week and reducing visible fat in food can go a long way in postponing or preventing diabetes, BP and heart diseases..” He advised us to add more fruits, vegetables and protein to our diet.
Dist. Governor R.I.3232 Rtn G. Chandramohan advised everybody to “Take 1 spoon less of sugar, 1 spoon less of salt, 1 spoon less of oil and walk a few more steps every day to keep yourself out of diabetes”.
