SINGER Howza has put his experience with diabetes into a song.
Howza, real name Tshepo Mosese, will launch his single I choose to live on November 14, which is also World Diabetes Day.
"I felt I needed to express the challenges I faced with diabetes in the best way I know how - through music," Mosese said.
Speaking to Sowetan from Copenhagen, Denmark, where he will perform next week, Mosese said he was excited about the single and his latest album, World Premiere.
Mosese is a diabetes ambassador and has lived with the condition for the past eight years.
"The diagnosis came as a shock to me. Though I knew about the condition from my father - who has been living with it for a long time - I assumed it was an old man's disease, not knowing that as a young person I was not immune," he said.
Mosese said adopting healthier eating habits with his demanding touring schedule had been difficult, "what with fast food outlets at every corner".
"I am not a health nut. Every now and then I will have fast food," he said. "I now eat low GI bread and green vegetables, which I used to hate."
As a diabetes ambassador Mosese speaks to many schoolchildren and at corporate events about the condition.
An estimated 300million people worldwide have diabetes and the number is increasing because of obesity and "bad lifestyles".
Professor Frederick Raal of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital's endocrinology and metabolism unit said obesity in younger people put them at risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Complications from untreated diabetes include blindness, damage to the kidneys, heart disease and having limbs amputated.
Raal said warning signs include being thirsty all the time, low energy levels, the urge to urinate, dizzy spells and blurry vision.
Howza a diabetes emissary
SINGER Howza has put his experience with diabetes into a song.
Howza, real name Tshepo Mosese, will launch his single I choose to live on November 14, which is also World Diabetes Day.
"I felt I needed to express the challenges I faced with diabetes in the best way I know how - through music," Mosese said.
Speaking to Sowetan from Copenhagen, Denmark, where he will perform next week, Mosese said he was excited about the single and his latest album, World Premiere.
Mosese is a diabetes ambassador and has lived with the condition for the past eight years.
"The diagnosis came as a shock to me. Though I knew about the condition from my father - who has been living with it for a long time - I assumed it was an old man's disease, not knowing that as a young person I was not immune," he said.
Mosese said adopting healthier eating habits with his demanding touring schedule had been difficult, "what with fast food outlets at every corner".
"I am not a health nut. Every now and then I will have fast food," he said. "I now eat low GI bread and green vegetables, which I used to hate."
As a diabetes ambassador Mosese speaks to many schoolchildren and at corporate events about the condition.
An estimated 300million people worldwide have diabetes and the number is increasing because of obesity and "bad lifestyles".
Professor Frederick Raal of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital's endocrinology and metabolism unit said obesity in younger people put them at risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Complications from untreated diabetes include blindness, damage to the kidneys, heart disease and having limbs amputated.
Raal said warning signs include being thirsty all the time, low energy levels, the urge to urinate, dizzy spells and blurry vision.
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