It is occurred when your blood sugar level or glucose is increased. Blood glucose comes from the food we eat, and it is the main source of energy.
An insulin1 made by the pancreas helps glucose to get into the blood cells from the food for energy. Sometimes it happens when your body is not producing enough or no insulin. Then glucose does not reach into your cells. Over the period it causes many health problems, and it is not curable yet. You can only keep yourself healthy by taking few steps to manage the diabetes. Sometimes it is called the touch of sugar it means someone do not really have diabetes but a minor symptom of it.
Types of diabetes:
There are four most common types of diabetes given below:
- Type 1 Diabetes: It is the type of diabetes in which your immune system destroys the cells in your blood and your body does not make insulin. It is usually diagnosed in youngsters, young adults and children. It can appear at any time and at any age. In this type you need to take insulin on daily basis to stay alive.
- Type 2 diabetes: In this type, your body is not making enough insulin or no insulin. It can be developed at any age in your life. It is mostly occurred in middle aged and older people. It is the most common type of diabetes.
- Gestational Diabetes: It is developed in some women when they are pregnant. Most of the time, it is temporary when the baby is born this goes away. If you have diabetes after the pregnancy, then the chances are high that you may develop type 2 diabetes. Sometimes during pregnancy, the type of diabetes diagnosed is type 2 diabetes.
- Other types: There are many other types of diabetes which are not so common.
Symptoms:
The most common symptoms are:
- Increase in thirst
- Dizziness
- Increase in hunger
- Blurred vision
- Numbness of hands and feet
- Sores in body
- Weight loss
They symptoms of type 1 diabetes are the most common in people. After some weeks, symptoms of type 2 diabetes developed slowly. Over the period its symptoms are so mild that you might not even notice it. Some people do not have any sign of the diabetes until they found the diabetes related problems.
Causes:
There are different causes of diabetes given below:
- Type 1: Doctors are not aware of the exact causes of the type 1 diabetes. At some point, for some reason the immune system attacks the insulin producing cells by mistake
- Type 2: It is the result of genes and lifestyle of a person. If a person is overweight or obese then they are highly likely to have diabetes in future. Having extra weight makes your cells more resistant to the insulin.
- Gestational diabetes2: It is the result of hormonal imbalance during pregnancy. The placenta produces a type of hormones that makes her less sensitive to the insulin. It can cause high sugar during pregnancy.
Risk Factors:
There are many factors that can increase the chances of having diabetes like:
- Being overweight
- Age factor like 45 or above
- Having a close relative with the condition
- Not physically active
- Had gestational diabetes during pregnancy
- Had prediabetes
- Cholesterol problems
- Having African American, Alaska Native, American Indian, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander descent.
Complications:
High amount of sugar in your blood damages other organs and tissues in your body. There are high chances that you have to live with it over the course of life. The longer you live with diabetes, the greater the impact on your life. Some of the complications are below:
- High chances of heart disease like heart attack and stroke.
- Nerve damages caused by diabetes over the period.
- Vision loss is the biggest problem in aged diabetic patients.
- Loss of hearing is common in diabetes.
- Permanent sores on your feet.
- There is a chance you can get fungal infection.
- Permanent depression.
- Memory loss or dementia.
Gestational diabetes may lead you to the pregnancy complications that will affect both mother and baby. Including:
- Premature birth of a baby.
- Higher weight at birth than normal.
- Very low blood sugar.
Diagnosis:
Anyone with above symptoms should be tested at least once. Pregnant women are tested for gestational diabetes over the course of pregnancy. Most of the time doctors take samples of your blood in order to diagnose the prediabetes and diabetes.
First of all, you fasted for 7 to 8 hours to get tested for FPG (Fasting Plasma Glucose). It measures your blood sugar level after you have fasted. When you get tested for the A1C test, it shows you the sugar level over the past three months.
In order to diagnose the gestational diabetes, the doctor measures the sugar levels between the 23rd and 27th weeks of your pregnancy. First of all, you drink a sugary liquid in order to challenge the glucose test. The glucose tolerance test is taken after you fast over the night and then drink a liquid full of sugar.
Preventions:
From the research, type 1 is not preventable because it is directly linked to your immune system imbalance. In type 2 diabetes you cannot control some of the causes like your genes and age.
Yet there are many other things that can be controlled. It is directly linked to your diet and fitness plans. If you are diagnosed with prediabetes then you can prevent it by following the steps below:
- You have to get at least 140 to 150 minutes per week of exercises like walking or cycling.
- Avoid refined carbs and fats.
- Increase the use of fruits and vegetables in your daily meal.
- Get used to eat in portions.
- If you are obese and overweight, then you should lose some weight. It should be about 6 to 7 percent of your body.
These are not the only options for you to prevent diabetes. You can discover on your own whichever suits you. To fight with this chronic disease, you should be able to trust yourself.
1 https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes/insulin-injection
2 https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/gestational.html