By Frank Hague
Diabetes is a disease affecting the manner in which the body
handles digested carbohydrates. If neglected, diabetes can
cause extremely severe health complications, ranging from
blindness to kidney failure.
Around eight percent of the population in the United States has
diabetes. This means that around sixteen million people have
been diagnosed with the disease, based only on national
statistics. The American Diabetes Association estimates that
diabetes accounts for 178,000 deaths, as well as 54,000
amputees, and 12,000-24,000 cases of blindness annually.
Blindness is twenty-five times even more common among diabetic
patients in comparison with nondiabetics. If current trends
continue, by the year 2010 complications of diabetes will
exceed both heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of
death in America.
Diabetics have a high level of blood glucose. Blood sugar level
is regulated by insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas,
which releases it in response to carbohydrate consumption.
Insulin causes the cells of the body to absorb glucose from the
blood. The glucose then serves as fuel for cellular functions.
Traditional diagnostic standards for diabetes have been fasting
plasma glucose levels greater than 140 mg/dL on 2 occasions and
plasma glucose greater than 200 mg/dL following a 75-gram
glucose load. However, even more recently, the American
Diabetes Association lowered the criteria for a diabetes
diagnosis to fasting plasma glucose levels equal to or higher
than 126 mg/dL. Fasting plasma levels outside the normal limit
demand further testing, usually by repeating the fasting plasma
glucose check and (if indicated) initiating an oral glucose
tolerance test.
The many symptoms of diabetes include excessive urination,
excessive thirst and hunger, sudden weight loss, blurred
vision, delay in healing of wounds, dry and itchy skin,
repeated infections, fatigue and headache. While suggestive of
diabetes, these symptoms can also be caused by other factors,
and therefore anyone with symptoms suspicious of the disease
should be tested.
There are 2 different varieties of diabetes.
Type I Diabetes (juvenile diabetes, also known as
insulin-dependent diabetes): The cause of type I diabetes
starts with pancreatic inability to make insulin. This causes
5-10% of cases of diabetes. The pancreatic Islet of Langerhans
cells, which secrete the hormone, are destroyed by the
patient's own immune system, probably because it mistakes them
for a virus. Viral infections are believed to be the trigger
that sets off this auto-immune disease. Type I diabetes is most
prevelant in the caucasian population and has a hereditary
component.
If untreated, Type I or juvenile diabetes can lead to death
within two to three months of the onset, as the cells of the
body starve because they no longer receive the hormonal prompt
to absorb glucose. While a great majority of Type I diabetics
are young (hence the term Juvenile Diabetes), the condition can
develop at any age. Autoimmune diabetes is diagnosed by an
immunological assay which shows the presence of
anti-insulin/anti-islet-cell antibodies.
Type II Diabetes (non insulin dependent diabetes, also known as
adult onset diabetes): This diabetes is a consequence of body
tissues becoming resistant to the effects of insulin. It
accounts for 90-95% of cases. In many cases the pancreas is
producing a plentiful amount of insulin, however the cells of
the body have become unresponsive to its effect due to the
chronically high level of the hormone. Finally the pancreas
will exhaust its over-active secretion of the hormone, and
insulin levels fall to beneath normal.
A tendency towards Type II diabetes is hereditary, although it
is unlikely to develop in normal-weight individuals eating a
low- or even moderate-carbohydrate diet. Obese, sedentary
individuals who eat poor-quality diets built around refined
starch, which constantly activates pancreatic insulin
secretion, are prone to develop insulin resistance. Native
peoples like North American Aboriginals, whose traditional
diets never included refined starch and sugar until these items
were introduced by Europeans, have very high rates of diabetes,
five times the rate of caucasians. Blacks and hispanics are
also at higher risk of the disease. Though Type II diabetes
isn't as immediately disastrous as Type I, it can lead to
health complications after many years and cause serious
disability and shortened lifespan. As with Type I diabetes, the
condition develops primarily in a certain age group, in this
case patients over forty (which is why it's typically termed
Adult Onset Diabetes); however, with the rise in childhood and
teenage obesity, this condition is being seen for the first
time in school children as well.
If treatment is neglected, both Type I and Type II diabetes can
lead to life-threatening complications like kidney damage
(nephropathy), heart disease, nerve damage (neuropathy),
retinal damage and blindness(retinopathy), and hypoglycemia
(drastic reduction in glucose levels). Diabetes damages blood
vessels, especially smaller end-arteries, leading to very
severe and premature atherosclerosis. Diabetics are prone to
foot problems because neuropathy, which afflicts about ten
percent of patients, causes their feet to lose sensation. Foot
injuries, common in day-to-day living, go unnoticed, and these
injuries cannot heal because of atherosclerotic blockage of the
microscopic arteries in the foot. Gangrene and subsequent
amputation of toes, feet or even legs is the result for many
elderly patients with poorly-controlled diabetes. Usually these
sequelae are seen sooner in Type I than Type II diabetes,
because Type II patients have a small amount of their own
insulin production left to buffer changes in blood sugar
levels.
Type I diabetes is a severe disease and there is no known
permanent cure for it. Nonetheless, the symptoms can be
controlled by strict dietary monitering and insulin injections.
Implanted pumps which release insulin immediately in response to
changes in blood glucose are in the testing stages.
In theory, since it induced by diet, Type II diabetes should be
preventable and manageable by dietary changes alone. However, as
so often happens, clinical theory is defeated by human nature in
this case, as many diabetics (and many obese people without
diabetes) find it personally impossible to lose weight or even
stick to a diet free of starchy, sugary junk food. So Type II
diabetes is frequently treated with drugs which restore the
body's response to its own insulin, and in a few cases
injections of insulin.
Please note that this article isn't a subsitute for medical
advice. If you suspect you have diabetes or even are in a high
risk demographic group, please see your doctor.
About the Author: Frank Hague takes great interest in medical
matters. http://www.diabetes-testing-2006.info
Source: http://www.isnare.com
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