Anil Singh (name changed), is a 37-year old Senior Manager in the IT department of international firm and a father of a 10-year-old son. Five years ago, when he just 32, Anil was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which changed his life. He started feeling fatigued all the time and could hardly find the energy to play with his son who was just 5 back then. Being a foodie, he felt life, as he knew it was over.
Even with knowledge of his condition, being a dedicated professional, Anil led a busy life, often running from one meeting to another. ‘I had little time for meals or exercise. This in turn affected my body and my sugar levels, he says. Even after following his treatment regimen and visiting a dietician, Anil’s blood sugar levels kept increasing. This lack of improvement affected Anil and he was often left depressed with the little progress his efforts were making. He felt his diet was confusing. ‘I could never understand what I should eat and in what proportions, especially if I was traveling or outside for a meal with my family’, says Anil, complaining about his inability to carry his diet chart everywhere with him.
In 2017, Anil heard about Wellthy Care, a prescription-based digital therapeutics app, which helps individuals manage their diabetes better through its expert health coaches and AI-based, clinically-proven platform. Once, Anil learned how to use the app, whenever he had a doubt, he would just ask for an answer or advice. It helped him pay more attention to his regular meals and he made efforts gradually to eat right. Anil talks about the change in his attitude towards his diet - ‘My Wellthy health coach never asked me to stop myself from eating something. All she told me was that if I had to eat a sweet, I should also be eating a bowl of vegetables or fruits. I slowly cut down on my intake of carbohydrates and increased my vegetables.”
He believes that the constant tracking and logging of his meals helped him realize where he was going wrong and he would make the required adjustments to achieve his health goals. ‘Now, anytime I have eaten more or exercised less, the app makes me aware of it immediately as opposed to earlier when I had no idea where I was going wrong’ says Anil.
He started Wellthy’s 16-week diabetes management programme when his HbA1C was 7.6% (HbA1c is a measure of a person’s average blood sugar level over the past 3 months.) After 16 weeks, it dropped to 5.2%, an indicator of extremely low to no diabetes. He had successfully ‘reversed his diabetes’. Even his weight reduced from 71kgs to 68.5kgs. From activity levels of merely 10 minutes per day, his activity levels increased to 1 hour, 10 minutes per day.
His doctor has now changed his prescription and cut down most of his medicines. He was recommended that he continue with his new model of behavioural change. He strongly believes that diabetes can be managed by tracking and monitoring. ‘Just a simple hack like snacking on roasted chana or almonds in between meetings helped me reduce my blood sugar fluctuations’. Even the doctors were impressed at his new-found ability to balance his meals!
He is much happier now and feels he will live for far longer than he expected to and see his son grow up. He now has the energy to play cricket with his budding bowler son.
Anil’s remarkable journey can serve as an example for several other Indian fathers and men who struggle with diabetes and other lifestyle diseases that can hinder their day to day life. It also makes them aware that today a condition like diabetes can be successfully managed with some self-discipline enabled with the help of digital therapeutics. This Father’s Day, let’s take a little time to encourage our loved ones to work on their health and like Anil, they might be surprised what a little self-direction can do!i
