Diabetes is increasing in the American population at an alarming rate, even among younger people. This is a serious disease in which the body does not produce or properly use a hormone called insulin. Produced in the pancreas, insulin is necessary to turn the sugars in the blood and in the food into energy. In a person with diabetes, because insulin is deficient or not working well, sugars build up to dangerously high levels in the blood.
There are two types of diabetes:Type 1, also known as juvenile diabetes.
Type 2, the most common form, usually diagnosed in adults.
In a person with type 2 diabetes, the body does not use its supply of insulin efficiently (insulin resistance). At fist the body can compensate by making more insulin. With time, the pancreas begins to fail and loses its ability to make enough insulin to overcome the body’s resistance to insulin. Once this occurs, blood sugar levels rise to unhealthy levels. Diabetes type 2 is a major risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease.
Diabetes can lead to many serious medical problems, the most life-threatening of these is cardiovascular disease. Treatment, through lifestyle changes and one particular medication(metformin), can help control diabetes and also reduce the risk of heart disease.
It’s important to get the message across that diabetes and heart disease are very strongly linked. The sooner you begin to control prediabetes or diabetes and reduce your risk of heart disease, the healthier and longer your life will be.
The main risk factor for type 2 diabetes isobesity: 80 to 90% pf people with type 2 diabetes are overweight. Obesity causes insulin resistance, possible by increasing the blood levels of building blocks of fats (fatty acids) and certain proteins that interfere with the action of insulin. Older people tent to accumulate more body fat as they age. thus their risk of developing diabetes increases. The lion’s share of the problem stems from eating too much and exercising too little.
Symptoms
People with type 2 diabetes may have no symptoms for months or even years before the disease is diagnosed. The first symptom of diabetes, which may subtle, result from the high level of sugar in the blood. When the blood sugar level rises too high, sugar spills in to the urine. The kidneys then must excrete additional water to dilute the sugar. Therefore, a person with diabetes urinates large volumes (polyuria). The loss of water due to excessive urination also creates abnormal thirst (polydipsia). Also, because the body cannot use sugar as energy, a person with diabetes may experience excessive hunger and thus eat more (polyphagia) and yet still lose weight. Other symptoms include blurred vision, drowsiness, decreased endurance during exercise, andlightheartednesson standing, a sign ofdehydration.
Occasionally, blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes becomeextremelyhigh. These extremely high levels often result from failing to take drugs to control blood sugar of from stress to the body, such as infection or surgery. When blood sugars levels rise extremely high, the person may become severely dehydrated, which may lead to confusion and or drowsiness.
Prediabetes
As more of the U>S population develops diabetes or the insulin resistance syndrome associated with it, doctors have become more aggressive about diagnosing and treating it, or preferably preventing it in the first place.
If you are in the prediabetes range, you can and should do something about it right away to prevent or delay the development of diabetes. Many people can return their blood glucose levels to normal with relatively small changes in lifestyle alone. You can benefit from even a modest weight loss of 5 to 10 percent of your body weight. If you can’t get down to your ideal weight, even a loss of 10 to 15 pounds can make a significant difference. Similarly, increasing your level of activity to just moderate exercise (walking) for 30 minutes a day is enough to make a difference. It’s worth it to change your lifestyle at this early stage. Your doctor will also talk about other risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking.
Treatment
The goal of treatment is maintain blood sugar levels within the normal range so as to prevent or control symptoms and reduce the risk of developing complications. However, some people with other diseases, such as advanced cancer, may not benefit from strict control of blood sugar levels if one or more of their diseases are life threatening. Strict control may also be impossible for people with dementia or poor eyesight.
The focus of diabetes treatment is not limited tocontrolof blood sugar. Management of associated cholesterol, are also important. Treatment involves education diet, exercise, drugs (for most people), and frequent monitoring of blood sugar levels.
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