Diabetes
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease that occurs when your body either doesn’t make enough of a hormone called insulin or doesn’t use the insulin correctly. Insulin, produced by the pancreas, is released into the blood stream after you eat a meal. Insulin is necessary to help process digested food – which is converted into glucose (sugar) - into the body cells so it can be used as energy. Diabetes causes the sugar to build up in your blood.
There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. The onset of Type 1 usually occurs under age 30 and is due to a severe lack of insulin production by the pancreas. These people must take insulin shots. Type 2 diabetes usually occurs in older people and can usually be treated with diet and exercise, and sometimes an oral agent. Most people with Type 2 diabetes are overweight and their diabetes can be treated by restricting calories. Some must use insulin.
Only 50% of those with diabetes have been diagnosed because there are few symptoms in the early stages of diabetes or the symptoms mimic those of other health conditions. Left untreated, diabetes can lead to heart attacks, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and amputations.
What causes diabetes?
The exact cause is unknown, but diabetes tends to run in families. If you are predisposed to diabetes, some stresses and environmental hazards such as injury, infection, obesity, pregnancy and surgery, can hasten its onset.
What are the symptoms of diabetes?
Sometimes, in the early stages of diabetes, there are few symptoms. But they can include:
- Changes in vision
- Unexplained weight loss
- Extreme thirst
- Extreme hunger
- Frequent urination
- Fatigue
- Slow-healing sores, cuts or bruises
- Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
- Dry, itchy skin
- Frequent or recurring skin, gum, bladder or vaginal yeast infections
All of these are signs of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia).
What are the risk factors for diabetes?
You are at risk if:
- You are over age 45
- You are overweight
- You do not exercise regularly
- Your parent or sibling has diabetes
- You’re African American, Hispanic American/Latino, Native American, Asian American or a Pacific Islander
- You have given birth to a baby weighing more than 9 pounds or you had gestational diabetes during your pregnancy
If you have one or more of these risk factors, ask your physician to test you for diabetes.
How is diabetes diagnosed?
Your physician can detect the presence of diabetes by testing for sugar in your urine and an elevated sugar level in your blood.
What treatment is available?
The treatment and control of diabetes varies from person-to-person, and must be determined by your physician. Those with Type 1 diabetes generally take insulin and follow a diet. Those with Type 2 diabetes are often treated simply with diet and exercise.
Although diabetes cannot be cured, it is possible to control or manage it. The most important thing is to control your blood sugar level. Keep it as close to normal as possible – not too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia). This is possible by eating right, exercising, maintaining a healthy weight and, if necessary, taking an oral drug or insulin.
It’s also important to regularly check your blood sugar. This can help you see how food, exercise and insulin or medication affects your level. You should contact your physician if:
- You start feeling very thirsty and urinate more.
- You feel nauseous or vomit more than once.
- Your breath smells sweet.
- You feel uncoordinated.
- You start breathing faster and deeper.
- You begin trembling, feel weak and drowsy and then dizzy, or start seeing double.
Left uncontrolled, diabetes can be a life-threatening condition. Its high blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels, nerves, eyes and kidneys. Complications can include:
- Blindness – Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in those aged 20-74.
- Heart disease – People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease and damage to the heart’s blood vessels. This in turn increases their risk of heat attack and stroke.
- Kidney disease – Once the small blood vessels in the kidneys are damaged by diabetes, they cannot filter the body’s waste. Sometimes the kidneys stop working completely, and those cases require dialysis or a kidney transplant.
- Nerve and blood vessel damage – Damage to the blood vessels in the legs limits the blood supply to the nerves in the legs and feet. It is then harder to feel injuries, such as foot sores, and it makes you more prone to infection. In extreme cases, a portion of the foot or lower leg may require amputation.
More information on managing diabetes and treatment options is available through Mercy’s Crawford Diabetes Center.
For more information from the American Diabetes Association, click here www.diabetes.org
