Q: I am a 31 years old man who has started losing weight without any physical exercises. My height is 6.2 feet and weight is 108 kg. But, due to work pressure and nature of my job, I have lost the habit of eating regular meals. Six months back, I got my blood sugar tested and found the post lunch sugar levels to be around 360 mg/dl. I started Glycomase MF half in the morning and half in the evening. Recently, I got my sugar levels tested again and found the random blood sugar to be 275 mg/dl. Then I started taking Glycomet GP-1 daily. And, after monitoring the sugar levels regularly for 15 days, I found the fasting reading between 102-118 mg/dl and post lunch to be 110-130 mg/dl. I started feeling weak after starting this medication, therefore I stopped the medication for 4 days and found the sugar levels same as when I took medication. Do I need to continue on the same medication? My nature of work requires frequent travelling. I am worried how I will continue the medication when overseas. I have a family history of diabetes. My father takes 15 units of insulin daily. Please suggest.

A:You are obviously diabetic with a family history and in addition you are grossly overweight. If you want to live your normal span of life and avoid complications, there is no way except to change your lifestyle, lose weight to 70 kg, regular exercise and control your diabetes. The excuse that you have to travel frequently and fear of pills while abroad does not hold water. You should put yourself under the care of a good physician/diabetologist and undergo a complete evaluation for your cardiac and kidney status. A diabetic diet of not more than 1400 Calories and medication for diabetes are mandatory. Nowadays we refer to people like your condition as having the "metabolic syndrome" and there are definite guidelines for its treatment, which your physician is expected to know.