diabetes

Both diseases and other metabolic disorders are rife in the Pacific.

A team of researchers from the University of Otago has been granted the money by New Zealand's Marsden Fund Council.

One of the principal researchers, Anna Gosling, said through the work Professor Tony Merriman has already done with Maori and Pasifika in New Zealand, they thought there was a genetic link.

Throughout the Pacific, where there are high rates of these diseases, people had a shared ancestry, Dr Gosling said.

For this reason Dr Sauk is calling on the Health Department and the National Government to think seriously about diabetes and the future.

Dr Sauk said in PNG where there is no proper diabetes data base or registry system to show the accurate magnitude of diabetes, the government needs to allocate more money for awareness and prevention.

The theme of World Diabetes Day 2017 is Woman and Diabetes- Our Right to a healthy future.

The Day is observed primarily to promote;

• the importance of affordable and equitable access for all women at risk for or living with diabetes to the essential diabetes medicines and technologies,
• self-management education and information they require achieving optimal diabetes outcomes and strengthening their capacity to prevent type 2 diabetes.

According to International Diabetes Federation, diabetes is the ninth leading cause of death in women globally.

There are calls for price controls on widely available processed products in the Pacific.

The foods include high-fat Kiwi corned beef, biscuits and sugary soda.

Imported processed food inundate supermarket shelves in the Pacific, while junk food adverts even appear at school.

“There's a consensus here that there's a crisis when it comes to non-communicable diseases as a result of poor diet in the Pacific Islands,” Associate Professor Dr Jacqui Webster, from the George Institute For Global Health, told Newshub.

For diabetics, the risk is higher as diabetes develops cataract faster.

People with diabetes can have an eye disease called diabetic retinopathy – an increasing cause of blindness worldwide.

This is when high blood sugar levels cause damage to blood vessels in the tissue at the back of the eye (retina). 

According to Dr Amyna Sultan, director Pacific International Hospital, the prevalence of diabetes/ high sugar is increasing in PNG.

She is also an ophthalmologist (eye specialist) and stresses that a baseline eye examination is important for diabetics.

Research team leader Professor Philip Newsholme said lupin seed extract was being used in laboratory trials to regulate blood glucose levels.

He said research had shown broken down lupin seed could be used to stimulate insulin secretion in cells.

Diabetes mellitus is a condition in which the pancreas no longer produces enough insulin, or cells stop responding to the insulin that is produced, so that glucose in the blood could not be absorbed into the body's cells.

It came after decades of eating and drinking too much in a high-stress, sedentary job: "It was an explosion waiting to happen," he said.

For Graham, whose wife had become increasingly disabled through multiple sclerosis, the diagnosis was a wake-up call.

"I need to be able to help her - and I need to be around for longer," he said.

Graham is not alone in his diagnosis.

Public Health England estimates that 42% of 45- to 64-year-olds have a long-term health condition such as diabetes or heart disease.

People who drink moderately often have a lower risk of developing diabetes than those who never drink, according to a new study published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

I can have the requisite eight hours, no screens, fresh air and dim light and still wake up feeling knackered.

So, when a stranger sees me gazing at breathing apparatus in the local chemist and introduces herself as a 'CPAP disciple', I'm happy to listen.

CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and it is basically a mask you wear on your face that is powered by a machine which pushes air into your throat to stop your airway closing while you're asleep.

The fusion of biology and technology was used to control blood sugar levels in mice with diabetes.

The idea, described in Science Translational Medicine, could be applied to a wide range of diseases and drug treatments.

And the Chinese researchers say the approach could pave the way for a "new era" in medicine.

The first step was to turn normal cells into living factories.