Page 21 - Pakistan Link - May 28, 2021

COMMENTARY MAY 28, 2021 – PAKISTAN LINK – P21
Could You Have Silent Diabetes? Here’s How to Tell – And What You Can Do about It

n By Professor Roy Taylor Men, for their part, get type 2 diabetes
at a lower BMI than women. Even if a man is
n my diabetes clinic, I’m so often asked quite slim, an extra layer of belly fat in midlife
by my patients: “Why have I got type 2 should be viewed as a warning sign. So-called
Idiabetes? My friends are all fatter than middle-aged spread should be tackled and not
me and they don’t have this disease.” The an- laughed off.
swer is this: we all have a different degree of The risk increases steadily through life
susceptibility to fat. and rises sharply after 60. This is partly be-
Type 2 diabetes is caused by an individual cause the average 60-year-old is larger than
acquiring more fat than they personally can the average 20-year-old. But also, as we age, we
cope with – something I demonstrated in my lose muscle mass. Even a 60-year-old who can
work as a diabetes researcher a decade ago. proudly say they’re the same weight now as
When it comes to this illness, there is no one they were at 40 may still be unwittingly at risk,
size fits all approach to the question: how fat as they’ve probably lost muscle and gained fat.
is too fat? So what can we do? We must under-
This week, a study by researchers at the stand that any weight gain after we’ve stopped
University of Michigan found the number of growing is entirely fat. We can find out what
people around the world who are living with percentage of our body weight is fat by using
diabetes has more than quadrupled since one of the machines many gyms and pharma-
1980. Today, almost half a billion people glob- cies have, which give you an instant reading.
ally have the disease, and 90 per cent of them in recent decades. As a result, both men and these red flags appear, it’s likely the disease has If you’re outside the healthy range (between
have the type 2 version. The frightening part is women are approximately 10kg heavier to- already been present a while. nine and 20 per cent for men, and between 20
most don’t even realize it. day than they were 30 years ago. The problem It is, however, possible to know if you and 32 per cent for women) it’s time to take
As someone who has studied type 2 dia- is not the hugely obese people; it’s that most are at risk before the symptoms appear. If you action.
betes for many years, these new findings don’t people are walking around with a few extra ki- come from a family with a history of the dis- But if you do turn out to be one of those
surprise me at all. There’s no mystery sur- lograms they shouldn’t have. ease, you stand a fair chance of developing it walking around without knowing you have
rounding the reason for such an explosion in The finger of blame often points to- if your weight goes above a certain level. It’s type 2 diabetes, take heart in the knowledge
the condition, which causes the level of sugar wards ultra-processed foods, and rightly so: a genetic predisposition, but it never happens it can, in fact, be reversed. The science behind
in the blood to become too high and can lead these foods are designed to fill us up less and unless a person becomes too heavy for their this, which is my area of special interest, is
to complications such as heart disease and leave us craving more. Thirty to 40 years ago, still evolving; but we do know that losing the
stroke, vision loss and kidney problems: it’s most people were cooking more meals from A new study has found that excess fat you have gained can reduce the fat
a sickness of modern lifestyles, in which we scratch, and our shift to prepared food has had almost half a billion people inside the liver and pancreas that builds up to
cook less food from whole ingredients and a disastrous effect. cause diabetes. The sooner you start, the bet-
buy more of it ready-prepared. Exercise plays a part too, of course, but globally have diabetes, and ter, as initial findings suggest that those who
But the correlation between type 2 dia- to a lesser degree. If a large man does a good most don’t realise – here’s how have been diabetic for more than 10 years may
betes and obesity is less straightforward than workout, he could still regain all the calories well struggle to reverse it.
you might think (hence those puzzled patients burned by eating some chocolate. Exercise is to cut your risk factors There remains an unfair stigma attached
of mine). Almost three-quarters of those with important for keeping your weight healthy in to this illness. Yes, it’s possible to reduce our
a BMI of over 45 (in other words, those who the long-term, but nothing beats diet when it own body. personal risk; but the failure of governments
are morbidly obese) actually don’t have type 2 comes to shedding pounds fast. As a rule of thumb, if your waist size is to regulate the food industry is to blame.
diabetes. Meanwhile, 10 per cent of those with So how do you know if you’re one of the much larger than when you were 21, you are The same people who cry “nanny state” at
the disease have a BMI of under 25, meaning unlucky many who’s walking around without carrying too much fat. Even women who have the thought of curbing the market’s ability to
their weight is theoretically healthy. But in the knowing you are diabetic? The short answer given birth should be able to get their waist make us ill are also the taxpayers picking up
case of these people, crucially, their weight is you don’t. This is a disease that creeps up size back to what it was (if not their hip size). the bill for our sickness: more than £10 billion
isn’t healthy for them. Our genes determine on you silently, not making itself known un- And no, you don’t have to subsist on a lettuce a year is spent on treating type 2 diabetes in
how much weight each of us can carry before til it’s well on its way. If you’re passing more leaf a day. But you do have to watch your por- England and Wales alone.
we enter the danger zone, and for some it’s far urine than usual, feeling thirsty, tired, or suc- tion size, as standard servings today far ex- It’s time for us all to wise up and act now
less than for others. cumbing to more skin infections, then yes you ceed what the average woman should really to send this trend into reverse. – The Tele-
Our diets have changed dramatically should get yourself checked. But by the time consume. graph
Social Media Shows Shifting Perceptions of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict among Young Americans

n By Julia Munslow As violence escalated — deadly said. However, she acknowledged
clashes have killed at least 213 Pal- that the posts can be an entry point
Understand: the US is com- estinians, including 61 children, and for people who are driven to more
plicit,” reads an Instagram 12 people in Israel — social media deeply research an issue.
“post. “The United States pro- posts about the conflict have be- But for some, the Israeli-Pal-
vides $3.8 billion in military aid to come increasingly popular. estinian conflict is that clear-cut.
Israel every year.” Created by “So “This violence against Palestin- “When we’re talking about Israeli
You Want to Talk About,” an Ins- ian protesters is literal ethnic cleans- violence against Palestinians, it’s not
tagram account promoting pro- ing,” said Zahra Hashimee, known complex at all,” said Omar Zahzah, a
gressive politics with 2.7 million as @muslimthicc, to her 3 million pro-Palestinian organizer from Cal-
followers, the post urges people TikTok followers. “And this ethnic ifornia. “Ultimately it’s a cause about
to “take action” for Palestinians cleansing is being funded by your total freedom, justice and equality
through petitions and donations. US tax dollars.” She then urged her for all people.”
It’s part of the dramatic rise in followers to support H.R. 2590, a bill The progressive perspectives of
a wave of social media activism that that would prevent Israel from using young Americans on the Israeli-Pal-
has gravitated toward informing and US funding to detain or abuse Pal- estinian conflict also illustrate the
organizing young people around the estinian children or violate interna- generational split among Americans
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the tional humanitarian laws. on the issue.
deadly violence continued to esca- With last summer’s antira- “Democrats’ views on Israel
late in the Middle East, social media cism protests came a surge in on- Graphic footage — such as a Tik- counts about the conflict, though have changed remarkably in the last
in real time illustrated the shifting line activism that’s extended to the Tok video showing two Palestinians Instagram and Twitter have blamed 10 to 20 years,” said Rashid Khalidi,
perceptions of young people. Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last slapping two Orthodox Jewish teens technical glitches. a Columbia University professor of
Historically, the US has pro- year, Instagram users flooded the on a train — can quickly go viral. Young people are also suscep- Middle Eastern, South Asian and
vided billions of dollars in aid to Is- site with black squares in support But that sort of online activism tible to peer pressure to post online African studies. He said he’s “struck
rael, mostly in the form of military of Black lives, and it became com- has its drawbacks. Misinformation about issues to prove that they are by how much change there’s been
assistance, defending such support mon to share infographics on Insta- is rampant — there are “rabbit holes engaged. “I’ve heard from folks in among younger people” on the issue
as critical for an underdog facing gram Stories or post TikTok videos of falsehoods,” said Plitnik. Plus, their teens and 20s that your friends in the past couple of decades.
powerful enemies. Now, young left- of a protest. Now, #freepalestine complex issues like the decades-long will basically come after you and “More and more younger
leaning Americans are increasingly has over 2 billion views on TikTok, history of Israeli-Palestinian conflict accuse you of being callous, un- Americans ... have grown up with a
using social media to urge more while #standwithisrael has 28.9 mil- can be oversimplified into memes. interested,” said Kat Rosenfield, a very different view of what they’re
support and aid for Palestinians, lion. One viral video investigated contributor to the current-affairs seeing of Israel-Palestine,” Plitnik
framing it as a human rights issue “Once social media came by the New York Times was shared website the Spectator. “Most people said. “They’ve grown up with social
that echoes the antiracism move- around, the whole game changed,” by Israeli Prime Minister Benja- sharing these things could not point media, and even before that, views
ment from this past year. said Mitchell Plitnik, president of min Netanyahu’s spokesman, who to Israel on a map.” of Israel as a strong, powerful state
“I think it’s going to be very ReThinking Foreign Policy, a non- claimed it showed Palestinians firing “We’re creating our own [and of] Palestinians as powerless
clear soon that being progressive profit. rockets at Israeli civilians. In reality, meme-ified version of fake news,” people.”
means you’re on the side of Pales- In addition to organizing, so- it was a 2018 video of an attack in said Rosenfield. On social media, While some of that change may
tinian freedom,” said Maya Edery, a cial media allows Americans to wit- Syria or Libya. nuanced topics like the Israeli- relate to social media’s role in show-
28-year-old New Yorker who works ness firsthand what’s happening on Some Palestinian activists al- Palestinian conflict are reduced to ing Americans what’s happening on
for the pro-Palestinian organization the ground through the eyes of Pal- lege that social media companies “shallow, facile” content rather than the ground, younger generations
Jewish Voice for Peace. estinians and Israelis, Plitnik said. censor or remove their posts or ac- seriously explaining the issues, she PERCEPTIONS, P23
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