ROLE OF DIET AND LIFESTYLE IN THE PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT OF DIABETES MELLITUS: A REVIEW

Abstract

India has been projected by WHO as the country with the fastest growing population of dia-betic patients.Ayurveda, India’s traditional medical system has a wealth of knowledge re-garding Prameha(Diabetes). Prameha is a term that refers to a condition in which the body excretes more urine than usual. The rapid global rise of this disease indicates that its causes are possibly closely associated with the routine lifestyle and irregular dietary habits. Diabetes is also the medical condition, which presents with a preclinical phase having a possibility of reversal if its possible causes can be properly understood and managed to eliminate. It is said that prevention is better than cure, so we need to know the causes of diabetes so that one can prevent its occurence.According to Ayurveda, Diabetes Mellitus has striking resemblance to Prameha as described in developed knowledge about this disease.Thus efforts have been made to prevent diabetes by attempting to identify the causative factors and then proposing the ways to avoid them through lifestyle modification and dietetics according to Ayur-veda.This could be a most pragmatic way forward in Diabetes management either in preven-tion of its incidence or spread and prevention of its complications.