Towards a diabetic-free world!

With an objective to raise awareness about diabetes among children, The Times of India in association with Silverline hospital, held an educative session

To commemorate the World Diabetes Day on 14 November, an awareness talk on diabetes among children and its preventive measures was conducted at Choice school, Tripunithara, by a team of doctors from Silverline hospital.

Around 180 students of the age group of 13-15 years attended the programme. Dr Ajish T P, consultant paediatric endocrinologist, Silverline hospital, the main speaker at the event, spoke at length about the occurrence of juvenile diabetes, starting with its history, the causes, treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and ways to prevent them. “Children as young as 10 years develop diabetes today due to various factors but awareness on this disease nicknamed 'silent killer' is still low,” he said.

Stressing the importance of a healthy diet and lifestyle, Hannah Sheila Mathison, nutritionist, spoke on the dangers of sedentary lifestyle and eating disorders, leading to obesity trends.  The last session was conducted by Vybhav S, physiotherapist, who emphasised the need for some kind of physical activity in our daily lives. He highlighted the benefits and types of exercises one has to follow for a healthy life.

The live audience interacted well and asked a lot of interesting questions like ‘Is bone weight linked to obesity?’, ‘How eating while watching television is any different from eating with the family?’ and so on. Anjana Unnikrishnan, vice principal, Choice school, proposed the vote of thanks. It was an educative as well as informative programme and the students thoroughly enjoyed the session.

                                                                                                                    sherene.joseph@timesgroup.com