More on the joys of Ramadan.
For most of Australia’s 496,000 Muslims, the start of Ramadan today is a holy month of fasting by day and feasting by night. But for the estimated 22,000 Australian Muslims with diabetes, it can be a time of fluctuations in blood sugar levels that can be dangerous, even deadly.
So they should just not do it.
But no one should do it – it’s not healthy for anyone. Fasting and bingeing is a really terrible way to eat. Predators in the wild have to do that because that’s how it is (and lots of them starve to death), but it’s not something to do as a religious offering.
”I’ve seen people die one or two minutes before the fast is ending,” said a visiting endocrinologist from Saudi Arabia, Dr Al Saeed. ”They developed hypoglycemia but refused to break their fast. They became unconscious and died.”
The Koran specifically exempts those who are sick or suffer from a chronic condition such as diabetes from fasting. Yet 43 per cent of people with type 1 diabetes and 79 per cent of patients with type 2 diabetes fasted through Ramadan, reported the Diabetes Journal.
That is scary.
During Ramadan last year, Ms Hana broke her fast once when she started to feel dizzy. Before fasting, she sought medical advice on how to manage her diabetes. But her parents, who live in Tripoli, Lebanon, insisted on fasting every year, even though it made their diabetes worse.
That’s scary, frustrating, infuriating, pathetic. Taking risks for a good reason is one thing; doing it for a crappy one is another.