Diabetes: What is it and are there ways to prevent it?

WHAT IS DIABETES

Diabetes is a disease where the body can’t control the levels of sugar in the blood and so the blood sugar can become very high. It is caused by no or low amounts of the hormone insulin. It can also arise from the body not responding properly to insulin.

Insulin is made in the pancreas and helps lower a person’s blood sugar by telling the body to take sugar from the blood and put it into storage. Without insulin, the sugar would stay in the blood and not be put into storage. This can harm many organs in the long term and can be life threatening if the sugar gets very high. There are two types of diabetes.

TYPE 1 DIABETES – CAUSES, SYMPTOMS & TREATMENT

Type 1 diabetes normally starts during childhood or early adulthood. The body’s immune system attacks cells in the pancreas which usually make insulin. This means the pancreas stops producing insulin and so the sugar in the blood becomes very high. There is nothing specific that causes this to happen and nothing the child or parents can do to stop it from happening. People with type 1 diabetes often start becoming very thirsty and need to urinate a lot. Sometimes the sugar level becomes so high it is a medical emergency and they become confused, dehydrated and very unwell. The main treatment for type 1 diabetes is insulin.

TYPE 2 DIABETES – CAUSES, SYMPTOMS & TREATMENT

Type 2 diabetes normally starts later in life. The body becomes less responsive to insulin and so does not take the sugar at the same efficiency. High sugar and fat diet, increased age, certain ethnicities and being overweight increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Weight loss (in case of obesity) and a healthy diet can help to prevent people from developing type 2 diabetes.

People with type 2 diabetes can become thirsty and dehydrated like people with type 1 diabetes, but generally the symptoms develop over a longer time. More commonly people only come to medical attention when they develop organ damage from having high sugars for a long time. As people get older they should get their blood sugar tested to see if they are developing diabetes. Type 2 diabetes can be treated with special tablets to help reduce the blood sugar, or sometimes with insulin.

TREATMENT FOR DIABETES

Diet:

People with diabetes need to be careful with what they eat. They should avoid high sugar, high fat foods as they cannot control the blood sugar levels. However, diabetes does not mean people cannot eat any sugar. They should eat plenty of vegetables and complex carbohydrates such as lentils, whole meal flour and potatoes.

Insulin:

Insulin is used to treat type 1 and sometimes type 2 diabetes. It is injected under the skin. Often people will take a dose in the morning which is long acting for the whole day and then smaller doses which are short acting just before meals. When people use insulin they must check their blood sugar levels regularly. This is because it is important to keep them not too high and not too low as both of these can be very dangerous. Low blood sugar is the most serious side effect of taking too much insulin and can cause coma and death in serious cases.

Oral hypoglycaemic agents:

There are several tablets you can take for type 2 diabetes which can help to reduce the blood sugar. These have various side effects and should be started and monitored by a medical professional.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO TREAT DIABETES?

It is very important to keep the blood sugar within a small range. If it is too low (caused by the medications used to treat diabetes) it can cause coma and be life threatening. If it is too high it can also cause coma and death. It can cause or contribute to kidney failure, blindness, infections, leg ulcers, poor circulation, heart attacks and many other serious conditions.

The good news is that if diabetes is well controlled, people can live a long and healthy life. It should not stop someone from enjoying life!

SHIVANI MISRA

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5 Comments

  1. Datty 6 years ago November 20, 2017

    Nice lesson.

    REPLY
  2. Ronald Cann 6 years ago November 21, 2017

    Good education , we need more of this to help check our life.Please can regular exercise reduce diabetes?

    REPLY
    • tddoyle 6 years ago November 23, 2017

      Hi Ron!
      Thanks for your comment. Regular exercise and a healthy diet can help reduce your chances of contracting type 2 diabetes.

      REPLY
  3. Sciaffa G. Bernard, Sr. 6 years ago November 23, 2017

    I have learned a lot from you concerning this dreadful illness. Can you help us with photos with signs and symptoms of diabetes.

    REPLY
  4. Korlu Gbalee 6 years ago November 23, 2017

    Thanks for this important information.
    I truly appreciate this.

    REPLY

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