Diabetes control prevents heart attack among youth: Dr Jitendra

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 24: Renowned Diabetologist and Chairman National Scientific Committee (RSSDI) Dr Jitendra Singh said that most of the heart attacks occurring at young age these days are taking place among individuals having diabetes and these can be prevented through strict control of blood sugar levels.
Another irony is that many a time, it is only after a heart attack that a youngster comes to know that he was having diabetes, which was undetected, he added.
Dr Singh said this while delivering a guest lecture at a diabetes update (CME) programme for Physicians, Diabetologists and M D scholars here today.
The lecture-session was jointly chaired by former Principal, GMC Jammu, Dr Rajinder Singh and former HoD Cardiology GMC, Dr Mohan Lal.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that the current management approach in diabetes is to prevent adverse effect of diabetes on heart, kidneys, eyes, etc and to achieve this what is mandatory is a strict tight control of Blood Sugar. He said the focus is on target based treatment and in order to achieve this objective, the treating clinicians ought to keep themselves well-informed and updated to use not only one drug but a combination of drugs.
The medicinal treatment of diabetes with drugs, however, needs to be supplemented with non-medicinal measures including weight control, regular physical exercise and diet regulation said Dr Jitendra Singh and suggested that anti-diabetic drugs should be used as adjuvants to natural methods instead of being used as first line of treatment.
Dr Mohan Lal explained the close link between Diabetes and heart disease. He said diabetes is the most important risk factor for heart disease.
Dr Rajinder Singh referred to the problems confronted in managing tuberculosis in a patient with Diabetes.
A lively discussion and question-answer session followed the lecture.