This communication is the first of a series on South Asian fasts, festivals, and diabetes, designed to spread awareness and stimulate research on this aspect of diabetes and metabolic care. It describes the various fasts observed as part of Hindu religion and offers a classification scheme for them, labeling them as infrequent and frequent. The infrequent fasts are further sub-classified as brief and prolonged, to facilitate a scientific approach to glycemic management during these fasts. Pre-fast counseling, non-pharmacological therapy, pharmacological modification, and post-fast debriefing are discussed in detail. All available drug classes and molecules are covered in this article, which provides guidance about necessary changes in dosage and timing of administration. While in no way exhaustive, the brief review offers a basic framework which diabetes care professionals can use to counsel and manage persons in their care who wish to observe various Hindu fasts.

Diabetes is known to increase the risk of infection and the commonest amongst them are the ones involving the genitourinary tract. The infections in a diabetic patient are unique in that they are recurrent, more severe, requiring hospitalization, and also have higher mortality than nondiabetics. Some infections are exclusively found in diabetics like the emphysematous pyelonephritis while others have their natural history complicated due to hyperglycemia. Asymptomatic bacteriuria may lead to albuminuria and urinary tract infection and may need to be treated in diabetics. Not just this certain organisms have a predilection for the genitourinary tract of the diabetic patient. All of the above makes the diabetic patient vulnerable to infections and therefore early diagnosis and appropriate treatment is mandatory.