Take timely steps to prevent Diabetes

Mr Gowardhan Doddi discusses how his diagnosis of prediabetes proved to be a timely wakeup call.

- Mr Gowardhan Doddi

The journey so far

I was born and bought up in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. I like creating websites for businesses and blogging is my hobby. I was a workaholic and would blog and browse the internet in any spare time that I had. I would skip meals and instead eat a lot of sweets and biscuits. I used to sleep late around midnight.

Dealing with the diagnosis

I was diagnosed with prediabetes in March 2013 at 32 years of age during an annual medical health check-up at my work place. My fasting blood sugar reading was 120 mg/dL, triglycerides were 220 mg/dL and HDL was 25 mg/dL. The doctor informed me that my sugar levels were border line and advised me to modify my diet by avoiding intake of sweets, rice and potatoes.

I was a bit worried and I did not share this diagnosis immediately with my family which included my wife, my parents and my brothers. I was worried they would curtail my diet and stop me from eating sweets.

I did not take the diagnosis of prediabetes seriously at that point in time. I ate what I wanted and tried to balance that with brisk walking and playing badminton occasionally. After eight months of indulgence, I started feeling hungrier, the frequency of urination increased and I used to have mild headaches and felt lethargic.