Geetendra Singh Dhanawat
Aditya Bharati Center for Diabetes, India
Prediabetes is a transition phase and is actually the golden period for physicians to reverse the diabetes progression upto a level. Besides diabetes, the other disorders like mild to moderate hypertension, lipid de-arrangements (low HDL, high to normal LDL, high TG, high VLDL and normal total cholestrol) and weight gain is associated in prediabetic phase. Functional foods are those food items which naturally have the power to heal beyond their nutritional value i.e. flax seeds, fenugreek, oats, apple, blueberries, garlic (alium sativum), broccoli, tomatoes, onion, red rice and guava fruit etc. In a trial at OPD basis, we advised 101 day functional food & lifestyle modification program to all pre-diabetic patients (53 patients with HbA1c level more than 5.7 but less than 6.5, out of these 19 have grade one hypertension) and we monitored them closely for proper compliance. Besides functional food plan, the patients also advised for specific exercise plans which includes aerobics, resistance exercise and yoga for stress management. At the end of 151 day functional food plan, we succeded to reverse prediabetes in 67% patients and also achieved reduction of blood pressure to 47% patients. During this plan, we never used any medication. The mean HbA1c after the end of program was 5.3%. (4.9%-5.4%). The functional food in diet are natural agents to prevent or delay diabetes.
Geetendra Singh Dhanawat is an eminent Diabetologist (Mumbai, India), completed his PG from CMC Vellore in Family Medicine & MPH from Global University Kohima. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Public Health and completed his Fellowship in Intensive Care Medicine from Apollo Medvarsity. He has special interest in Diabetes and Disease Prevention. He completed PG Diabetology from John Hopkins University School of Medicine and Stonebridge University UK. He is a Strategic Diabetologist and Trainer at Connect & Heal Healthcare venture, a preventive care orientated organization. He has published several papers in reputed journals including Journal of WAO (World Allegy Organisation).
Email: gskgeetendra@rediffmail.com
