Why sitting is the new smoking: My sudden diabetes diagnosis

The writer, who is passionate about her work and led a sedentary lifestyle, got a shock.

- Peck Gee Chua

If January symbolises new beginnings, 2024 felt like stepping off a cliff into the unknown. I ended up hospitalised three days into the new year following intense stomach cramps and constant feelings of uneasiness. The frequent thirst and bathroom breaks just did not feel right.

"We're going to have to admit you for diabetes. You also have a urinary tract infection," the doctors said.

I was dumbfounded but did not resist. A million thoughts surged through my head. Shockingly, my blood sugar level is three times as high as the normal range, as finger-prick tests revealed. My haemoglobin result showed that I have unknowingly been living with diabetes for the last two to three months.

And for the second year in a row, I am diagnosed with yet another chronic health condition.

In early 2023, I started experiencing finger numbness during sleep. An MRI revealed cervical spondylosis, a type of neck arthritis, causing a bulging disk that affects nerves, leading to radiating pains from my neck to my fingers to other parts of my body.

Despite my annual health screening six months ago showing nothing amiss, I am thrown into this sudden onset of diabetes. I sit with the sinking feeling that I am now living a chronically ill life.

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

Not once did I think that I was a prime candidate for Type 2 diabetes and cervical spondylosis.

I am not obese nor did I have a family history of diabetes. I am relatively young as a 40-year-old and had thought of myself as reasonably healthy.

Looking back on why this happened to me, I can think only of one reason: My sedentary lifestyle, which was exacerbated by remote work, and my obsession with my work while juggling parenting duties. That left me little "me time" to mindfully care for my health or to exercise properly.