blue ribbon day

Yesterday, 5000 people joined in a walk-a-thon on the Corniche to raise awareness about the growing problem of Diabetes (type I and II) in the UAE. Type I diabetes is also called insulin-dependent diabetes or juvenile diabetes because it is usually discovered in children and teenagers, but adults may also have it. It is often inherited and patients must take insulin shots every day. Type II diabetes is usually found in overweight adults but is becoming much more common in children. Poor diet and sedentary lifestyles tend to bring this one on. Changing one's diet and activity level can often control this form of the disease. In a nation with skyrocketing adult obesity rates (75% in one report) this is becoming a real problem. This is even shocking to someone who comes from Houston, "the fattest city in the USA."
There are many factors at work. The westernization of the arab diet, the difficulty of exercising in the heat and within the constraints of Islam and the ancient, tribal customs of marrying within a family.
Blue-eyesight has a suggestion for controlling this disease....don't eat so much, don't sit around so much and stop marrying your first cousins.