Ramadan fasting and diabetes

doi:10.1136/bmj.39323.573148.BE

BMJ 2007;335:613-614 (22 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.39323.573148.BE

Practice

10-Minute Consultation

Ramadan fasting and diabetes

Aziz Sheikh, professor of primary care research and development¹, Sunita Wallia, research dietician²

¹ Division of Community Health Sciences, GP Section, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9DX, ² Division of Community Health Sciences: Public Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG

Correspondence to: A Sheikh aziz.sheikh@ed.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 45 year old Pakistani man with type 2 diabetes mellitus consultsto discuss how he might fast safely during Ramadan.

What issues you should cover

Explore his motivation—whether he wants to fast (as mostwill) or whether he is looking for a "legitimate" exemptionfrom fasting on medical grounds. A diagnosis of diabetes doesnot confer an automatic exemption, so if the second scenariois suspected it needs to be explored with sensitivity.
Althougheveryone agrees on the need to avoid food and drinkduring daylighthours, a range of views exists on the use ofdrugs. Ask hisopinion on the use of oral and injectable drugswhen fasting.
Find out how long the fast will last. The length of the fastvaries according to the time of year in which Ramadan falls.Ramadan starts on about 12 September this year and in the UnitedKingdom the fast will be about 13 hours . . . [Full text of this article]

What you should do

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Rapid Responses:

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