Did you know that Diabetes is a chronic disease?
World Health Organization (WHO) defined chronic diseases, or also known as non-communicable diseases (NCD) as diseases that are long duration, and are caused by combination of physiological, genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors. The leading types of chronic diseases are diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (strokes, and heart attacks), chronic respiratory diseases (asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and cancer.
This article will walk you through everything you need to know about diabetes.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes, which is also known as diabetes mellitus, is a chronic disease that transpires when the pancreas in your body is unable to produce sufficient insulin or when the body is incapable of effectively utilising the insulin it produces. It is a health condition that alters how your body turns food into energy.
In a healthy individual, all carbohydrate type of food is broken down into glucose (sugar), and the glucose is released into blood stream. As the blood sugar rises, it triggers the pancreas to release insulin. Thus, blood sugar is regulated by insulin. However, this regulation process does not occur in a person affected by diabetes which causes raised blood glucose or raised blood sugar – scientifically termed as Hyperglycaemia.
Hyperglycaemia is a regular outcome of uncontrolled diabetes over time. Unregulated diabetes over time precedes serious harm to body’s systems, mainly the blood vessels, and the nerves.
Types of Diabetes and Their Symptoms
- Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is characterised by the failure of pancrease to produce insulin or makes inadequate amount of insulin, typically developing in children, teens, and young adults. Though, it can happen at any age. For this reason, it is said to be hereditary due to genes in some people, allowing some traits to be passed on from parents to child.
It is also thought to be caused when autoimmune reaction occurs as the body mistakenly attacks itself, destroying insulin-making cells, named beta cells. This progression can go on within months or years before the appearance of symptoms. Having those genes does not mean a sure fire of having the disease, but a trigger in the environment, such as virus might play a part. Diagnosed Type 1 patients need to take insulin every day; the reason why it is also known as insulin-dependent diabetes.
The symptoms of type 1 Diabetes are constant hunger, thirst (polydipsia), excessive urine excretion (polyuria), fatigue, weight loss, and vision changes that may occur suddenly. Getting your children regular health check-ups, and getting them covered at young age will also give you a peace of mind.
- Prediabetes
A stage before Type 2 Diabetes. The main symptom is having blood sugar readings elevated than normal, but not high enough to be legitimately diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. The transition between normality and diabetes have distinguishable intermediate conditions such as impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and impaired fasting glycaemia (IFG). Having IGT or IFG makes you to be susceptible to a high risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, though this is not inevitable.
- Type 2 Diabetes
It is previously known as adult-onset diabetes of non-insulin dependent diabetes. Most people who have diabetes have this type of diabetes, where the patients are mainly middle-aged or old people. However, there is a growing trend of this also happening in children. The main cause for this type is sedentary lifestyle, and excess of body weight. The symptoms might appear alike to those of type 1 but often missed. Hence, late diagnosis, and by then some complications have already developed.
- Gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes occurs when pregnant women have blood sugar values higher than normal values (hyperglycaemia), but not to the point of diagnostic of diabetes. Gestational diabetes in pregnant women have greater risk of complications during pregnancy, and upon delivery. These women are at higher danger of developing Type 2 diabetes later on in life if no steps of prevention taken. This type of diabetes is diagnosed through prenatal screening, not through conventional reported symptoms.
How Does Diabetes Affects One’s Health Over Time
Diabetes can lead to a number of major health impacts over time. Typical severe diabetes health complications include kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, eye disease, and nerve disease.
- Kidney Disease: also known as diabetic nephropathy. This happens when there are injuries to your small blood vessels in the kidneys, causing the kidneys to be inefficient or crash. People with diabetes is more common to have kidney disease than those without diabetes.
- Cardiovascular Disease (CVD): is what happens when diabetes causes damages to the heart, and blood vessels. These may trigger mortal complications such as coronary artery disease (setting off heart attack), and stroke *more on this in our future article!* CVD tops the chart as the most common cause of death in patients with diabetes. High blood glucose, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure promotes the risk of developing cardiovascular complications.
- Eye Disease: people with diabetes tend to grow some form of eye disease or better known as diabetes retinopathy. Again, this complication arises as the impacts of consistent high blood glucose readings, along with high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
- Nerve Disease: too high blood sugar/glucose, and blood pressure may lead to nerve damages throughout the body, giving rise to diabetic neuropathy or nerve disease. The extremities, particularly the feet is the most commonly affected. Damages to the nerve in these areas might lead to tingling, pain, and loss of feeling. Injuries may be unnoticeable due to loss of feeling, leading to dangerous infections with the possibility of amputations.
What Are the Treatment of Diabetes
Early diagnosis is key in treating diabetes in order to be precise on its type, and severity. Treatment of diabetes may include:
- Daily insulin injections
- Oral medication
- Lifestyle changes, involving diet and physical activity in effort of lowering or maintaining healthy blood sugar/glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol readings to decrease damages to blood vessels
- Frequent blood sugar/glucose level, blood pressure, and cholesterol checks in order to maintain near normal levels along withs screening for early signs of diabetes related health impacts.
Is There Anything We Can Do to Prevent Diabetes?
Lifestyle adjustments are demonstrated to be practical in slowing down or preventing the onset of Type 2 Diabetes. The tips that help in preventing Type 2 Diabetes, and its complications are as follows:
- You should attempt to achieve, and keep a healthy body weight!
- You must strive to have a healthy diet, control intake of sugar, processed food, and saturated fats
- You have to be physically active by having regular, moderate-intensity activity for at least 30 minutes on most days; and
- Staying away from tobacco use as smoking intensifies the risk of diabetes, and cardiovascular related diseases.
On a Final Note
Can we reverse or cure Diabetes? The answer is maybe, and the individual is able to stop relying on diabetes medication after making healthy lifestyle changes. If prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes is discovered early in individual, it maybe possible to reverse or perhaps stop the progression of disease by immediately pledging to healthy lifestyle adjustments.
Watch this space. ‘Diabetes Part 2 (Final) – How insurance company perceived and underwrites diabetic applicant ‘ is coming next.
