Nagging thirst, Poor vision and No energy – Medhof can help
Do you or any of your family show symptoms of poor vision, weight problems, continual thirst, constantly in need to urinate and no energy? These are typical symptoms of diabetes and the flashing danger lights that you or one of your family may become the victim of diabetes.
This situation cannot simply be rectified by supplements although an early diagnosis can save you a lot of grieve.
Medhof Pharmacy can’t supply you with nutritional food, but should diabetes or obesity be in the process to get the upper hand, we can help with counseling, supplying the correct medicine according to your doctor’s prescription as well as accessories like blood sugar level testing kits and insulin injections.
If you are in doubt, please visit our clinic sister for a sugar test. Just a small prick on your vinger that can change your whole life through an early diagnosis.
The Hunger- Obesity Paradox
The impoverishment status, enforced on so many South Africans families when many lost their family businesses or jobs due to the strict Lockdown conditions imposed in fighting the Covid pandemic, will soon rear its ugly head as obesity and diabetes start to rise in the poor communities.
The reason being that although people lost their income, they stil have to provide food for the household. In order to stay within the limits of their limited budgets, they tend to look at the cheaper but more filling processed foods and drink. Foodstuff which does not necessarily need refrigeration occupying the limited space in a fridge, should one be available.
This is where the hunger- obesity paradox strikes, the result of an industrial food-system where lots of communities are saturated with cheap foodstuff high in calories but not necessarily nutritious.
Poverty is one of the main reasons for obesity. This is visible in all developing countries and is due to a shift in the food supply, especially as far as processed foods are concerned as they also have a longer shelve life.
Very few people are aware that processed food contains usually high levels of sugar and with that, lots of calories. Sugar may supply lots of energy, unfortunately for a small limited time and could help to burn up other available sources of nutritional food.
Other than perishable fruit and vegetables and fresh meat, processed food offers a much lower risk to the dealer. Although processed food is a source of energy, it hasn’t got much nutritional value.
The nutrition required to allowing the body to grow and perform does not reach the places where it can be of value for growth and beter health.
Poor South Africans are already dependant on a diet of cheap food, rich in sugar en carbohydrates. The fact is that the majority of people have good access to poor food and poor access to healthy food. This is a triple load on the rising numbers of diabetes and obesity, which has since 1994 shown an rise of 69 percent while the usage of vegetables has decreased by 8 percent.
In short, this means that the occurrence of non-transmittable diseases is on its way to overtake transmittable diseases like HIV and TB as the biggest burden on society.