Diabetes: A Lifestyle Disease

    Diabetes is one of the lifestyle diseases. It is the rising of blood sugar level. If the carbohydrates intake in our body is not properly managed, we are prone to such disease although we don’t have any history of diabetes. There are type of Diabetes namely: Type 1 Diabetes (Insulin-dependent), Type 2 Diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus) and Gestational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is insulin dependent. Patients who suffer from this need a shot of insulin as often as prescribed by their physician or whenever their blood sugar arises. Type 2 diabetes is acquired from unhealthy lifestyle and can be controlled with proper diet and exercise. While gestational diabetes can be acquired during pregnancy. In this paper, we will learn more about types of diabetes, its causes and symptoms, how to control this diabetes, its prevention and how to deal with diabetes patients.

At its core, diabetes is about blood sugar – or more precisely badly behaved blood sugar that has a major effect on how our body functions. In people with diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no insulin, or the body’s cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. As a result, glucose builds up in the blood, overflows into the urine, and passes out of the body. Thus, the body loses its main source of fuel even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose. There are several types of diabetes namely Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and prediabetes,

    Type 1 (Insulin-dependent) Diabetes is a chronic (lifelong) disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control; blood sugar levels. It is also used to be called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes. It can occur in any age, but it is most often diagnosed in children, adolescents, or young adults. Type 1 diabetes is classified as an autoimmune disease – a condition that results when the immune system turns against a specific part or system of the body. With Type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Scientists don’t know exactly what causes this but believe that genetic and environmental factors are involved.

    Type 2 (Non-insulin-dependents) Diabetes is the most common form of disease. In Type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use glucose for energy. When we eat food, the body breaks down all of the sugars and starched into glucose, which is the basic fuel for the cells in the body. Insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells. When the glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, it can lead to diabetes complications. Type 2 diabetes most often occurs in adults over 30, but may also develop in children. Factor that contribute to Type 2 diabetes are genetics, obesity, physical inactivity, and advancing age.
Gestational diabetes is one of the most common problems of pregnancy. Left uncontrolled, it can be dangerous for both mother and baby. This type of diabetes results when hormone produced by the placenta increase the mother’s resistance to insulin. It often disappears when the pregnancy ends, but these women are at the greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Pregnant women are routinely screened for gestational diabetes between their 24th and 28th weeks.
Predibetes describes an increasingly common condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. Those with prediabetes have ipaired glucose tolerance as indicated by one or more simple tests used to measure glucose levels. Research shows that most people with this condition go on to develop Type 2 diabetes within 10 years unless they make modest change in their diet and level of physical activity.

Cause and Symptoms

The exact cause of Type 1 diabetes is unknown, but most likely there is a viral or environmental trigger in genetically susceptible people that cause an immune reaction. The body’s white cells mistakenly attack the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. But in Type 2 diabetes, there are risk factors to be considered like, obesity and overweight, unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, increased age (21% of people over 60 have diabetes) , family history (diabetes tends to run in families), ethnicity (diabetes is more common in the African-American, Native American, Latino, Pacific Islander and Asian-American populations), history of metabolic syndrome and history of gestational diabetes.
People can often have diabetes and be completely unaware. The main reason for this is that the symptoms, when see on their own seem harmless. Here is a list of the most common diabetes symptoms:

Frequent Urination
Have you been going to the bathroom to urinate more than often recently? Do you notice that you spend most of the day going to the toilet? When there is too much glucose (sugar) in your blood you will urinate more often. If your insulin is ineffective, or not there at all, your kidneys cannot filter the glucose back into the blood. The kidneys will take water from your blood in order to dilute the glucose which in turns fills up your bladder.

Disproportionate Thirst 
Have you been drinking more than usual today?

Intense Hunger
As the insulin in your blood is not working properly, or is not there at all, and your cells are not getting their energy, your body may react by trying to find more energy-food. You will become hungry.

Unusual Weight Loss
This is more common among people with Type 1 diabetes. As your body is not making insulin it will seek out another source (the cells aren’t getting glucose). Muscle tissue and fat will be broken down for energy.

Increased Fatigue
    If your insulin is not working Properly, or is not there at all, glucose will not be entering your cells and providing them with energy. This will make you feel tired and listless.

Irritability
    Irritability can be due to your lack of energy.
Blurred Vision
    Can be caused by tissue being pulled from your eye lenses.

Cuts and Bruises Don’t Heal Properly or Quickly
    When there is more sugar in the body, its ability to heal can be undermined

More Skin and/or Yeast Infections
    Women with diabetes find it especially difficult to recover from bladder and vaginal infections.

Itchy Skin
    A feeling of itchiness on skin is sometimes a symptom of diabetes.

Gums Are Red and/or Swollen – Gums Pull Away From Teeth
    If the gums are tender, red and/or swollen, the teeth could become loose as the gums pull away from them.


Sexual Dysfunction Among Men
    Men over 50 who experienced frequent or constant sexual dysfunction (erectile dysfunction) might have diabetes.

Numbness or Tingling, Especially in your Feet and Hands
    If there is too much sugar in the body, the nerve become damage as could be tiny blood vessels that feed those nerves.

Diabetes can be effectively controlled once it has been accurately diagnosed. The goal of diabetes management, according to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, is to prevent short-term and long-term complications.

    Without proper management, individuals with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes can develop serious or deadly complications from high glucose levels, including blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage, as well as vascular disease, and strokes.
    For women with Type 1 diabetes, controlling blood sugar levels means getting shots of insulin everyday, adjusting doses to food and exercise, testing blood glucose up to eight times a day depending on the doctor’s recommendations, and following a diet.
    Type 2 diabetes may be controlled initially by a planned diet, exercise, and daily monitoring of glucose levels. Frequently, oral drugs that help lower blood glucose levels or insulin injections need to be added to this regimen.
    Recommendations of diabetic diet differ to person to person, base on their nutritional needs, lifestyle, and the action and timing of medications. For example, diet for Type 1 diabetic, focus mostly on matching food intake to insulin whereby one needs to know when insulin peaks and how fast the bodies metabolize different type of food. In Type 2 diabetic, the concern may be more orientation to weight loss in order to improve the body’s ability to utilize the insulin it does produce. Thus, learning about the basic of food nutrition will be able to help in adjusting diet to suite the particular condition.
    In planning a sample menu for diabetes, limit the amount of carbohydrates, space the scheduling of the meals, use healthy food preparation methods and stay away from hydrogenated and saturated fats and oils.

Prevention

Healthy Lifestyle
Healthy lifestyle can be achieved through clean living. If you are into lots of vices, stop it! Smoke, liquors and night life are big no, no. Proper diet should also be practiced. A good meal plan will help watch the foods you should eat and should not eat. Food pyramid is also a big help if having a nutritionist-dietician is too expensive. Most of all, exercising at least 30 minutes a day will help boost our immune system and can help circulate our blood evenly in our body.

Sufficient Information
    Magazines and televisions are the easiest way of getting information in a certain topic. There are lots of segments in the television which tackle on healthy lifestyle of humans. These help us know more about diabetes and be aware of it. The magazines also offer a lot of articles to read on their pages. There are helpful diets, tips on how to prevent diabetes as well as diets for those who already acquired such disease. But most of all, the most convenient and sufficient is the internet. Everything you wish to know about a certain topic is in the internet. Just type the words you wish to be knowledgeable with and poof! You will get the answer immediately. Internet is the fastest and the easiest means of getting information.

They say that diabetes patients are irritable. They usually make things complicated. But as a family member, a friend or a part of the community, how can we help them accept their disease? How can we encourage them live as if they are not diabetics?

As a member of the family, we have to adjust in everything. We will, eat like we have diabetes. We should adjust not them. We will go with them whenever they do their exercise because exercise is also beneficial for us. It makes us all healthy. As a friend, we can lend our ears whenever they need someone to talk with. Whatever the topic maybe because diabetes patients or anyone who is sick, no matter what their sickness are, needs someone to hear their sentiments and they usually don’t want to share it with their family but with their friends-their confidante. As a member of the community, we can help them by doing some community service and we can invite them to join the said activity. We will let them meet with other diabetic patients and educated them about the said disease so they will realize that having diabetes is not the end of everything. Most of all, we have to understand them whenever they have mood swings.
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