The internist and diabetes specialist at Prince Salman Hospital Dr. Iman Abdul Rahman Shashah said diabetes patients could reduce the complications of the disease by 60% in Ramadan through maintaining hemoglobin A1C level at 7.
She said most of the enquiries she answered in the "Alo Ramadan" program, which is directed by the MOH Health Information Center in coordination with Lourbak, had concentrated on the best ways of using diabetes drugs in Ramadan, especially insulin. Other enquiries included the symptoms of high and low levels of diabetes, overweight and obesity, the ways for protection against diabetes, etc.
She said fasting has no harm on diabetics, provided that they must follow certain dietary regulation, perform exercises, and continue taking medicines. "The medicines can be taken after both Iftar and Sahoor", she said. "But the amount taken after Sahoor should be half the amount taken after Iftar".
As regarding the long range insulin, the effect of which lasts for 24 hours, she demanded those who take such medicine to defer from changing their doses in Ramadan.
According to Dr. Shashah, the best times for testing diabetes is 2:00 pm, before Iftar, and two hours following Iftar.