Run to lessen diabetes risk

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 31: North Eastern Diabetes Society (NEDS), a non-profit organization of prominent diabetologists and endocrinologists of northeast region, has organized a 'Diabetes Run' half marathon on November 14 in Guwahati to mark the occasion of World Diabetes Day.

The run, which will flag-off by Northeast's first Arju awardee Bhogeswar Baruah, will begin at the Nehru Stadium at 6 am and will culmite at the same venue. The first prize is Rs 15,000 and the second prize is Rs 10,000, while the third prize is Rs 5,000.

There will be separate prize money for women runners.  Adressing a media gathering at AOA conference room at Deshbhakta Rarun Ram Phukan Indoor Stadium Sanjiv Medhi, the general secretary of NEDS, said, "This has been organized to bring awareness among the people to adopt a better and healthy lifestyle with physical exercise. Physical exercise is one of the best ways to get rid of diabetes. So, we want to aware the public about the positive sides of physical activities.”

It may be mentioned here that World Diabetes Day was first introduced in 1991 by Intertiol Diabetes Federation (IDF) and World Health Organization to aware people about this deisease. It was decided to choose a day of the year to raise the awareness of diabetes and related causes, the day chosen was the birth day of Fedrick Banting, a medical scientist who co-discovered Insulin and he was the first person to use it on humans.

According to IDF, there are around 382 million people living with diabetes in the world and the number in India is around 69 million.

The media briefing was also attended by Dr Sanjiv Medhi, Dr Vikash Bhattacharya, Dr P K Biswas, Dr Karu Kanta Barman, Dr Santosh Adhikari and Dr Kustab Das.