Diabetes and the Jamaican male

By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter

WHEN 63-year-old Billy Hall found out he had diabetes 26 years ago, he went into denial and rejected treatment for nearly 10 years.

He was a 37-year-old sports journalist and an avid sportsman about to enter the University of the West Indies. How could a seemingly healthy, 6-foot, 170 lb. former schoolboy star athlete be afflicted with such a disease? Hall questioned himself over and over and was slow in accepting what was happening to him.

"It was a shock to me because I was an athlete," he says. "I did a blood sugar test and they put me on 1 1/2 tablets and I took them for three months then stopped."

The fact that his family had no history of diabetes helped to keep him in denial. He simply disregarded treatment until he started feeling the effects of the silent disease at age 47.

"It (diabetes) will attack the eyes. There is one eye I don't see very well out of now," says Hall who is now insulin dependent, injecting himself daily with the hormone.

He reckons that his healthy diet and lifestyle have so far saved him from further complications. Still, he wished that he had taken action the moment he found out that he had the disease.

MORE MEN SEEKING HELP

Diabetes affects 10 per cent of the Jamaican population. Half is estimated to be male. However, women still outnumber men three to one for diabetes screenings, says Professor Errol Morrison, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and diabetes specialist. The good news these days is that more men are visiting clinics to be screened for the disease. This trend, explains Dr. Morrison, is a reflection of an increased awareness of the disease among Jamaican men.

He notes that of the estimated 300,000 diabetics in Jamaica only 150,000 know that they have the disease. Twenty per cent of those diagnosed are insulin dependent.

The single most important cause of diabetes is too much fat, he explains. As a result, says Professor Morrison, "big-bellied" men and women are more prone to diabetes. They are also more likely to experience high blood pressure and heart attacks. "Anyone with a waist more than 36 inches is prone to develop problems," he says.

Noting the increased awareness among men, Professor Morrison stresses that it is crucial that men understand the importance of screening for the disease and the implications if it is left untreated.

Many men, he says, refuse to pay attention until the disease hits them in areas where it hurts ­ their sex life, for example. Diabetes can cause permanent impotence.

"When diabetes causes impotence, not even viagra will help because diabetes blocks the blood vessels and viagra works by dilating them. It can't work if the vessels are blocked."

In the United States 50 to 60 per cent of men with diabetes in the United States over 50 are estimated to be affected by impotence, a problem suffered by approximately 10 per cent of men in the general population.

Diabetes facts

• Diabetes means that your blood sugar level is too high. Your blood always has some sugar in it because the body needs sugar for energy to keep you going but too much sugar in the blood can cause serious damage to the eyes,
  kidneys, nerves and heart.
• Amputation rates as a result of diabetes are 1.4 to 2.7 per cent higher in men than women. (Improved prevention and treatment of foot ulcers, and education about proper foot care can prevent up to 85 per cent of those lower extremity amputations).
• Diabetes is a major health threat for men. It can be the cause of:
  Heart attacks, stroke, blindness, impotence, kidney failure, amputation and nerve damage.
• Diabetes can occur at any age, but usually happens after age 40.
• About one-third of adults with diabetes do not know they have it because the early symptoms are always silent. It is now recommended that everyone 45 and older be tested for diabetes.
• While there is no known cure for diabetes, some doctors believe it can be prevented.
• Those at risk for type 2 (not insulin dependent) diabetes are

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