Diabetes Symptoms, Causes, and Risk Factors

Diabetes is a stable, chronic health condition. It is a metabolic disorder that causes high blood sugar. With diabetes, your body doesn`t make insulin, or maybe insulin doesn`t work effectively or efficiently. Diabetes affects the process of your body in which food turns into energy.Most of the food you eat is broken down into sugar (glucose) and released into the bloodstream. When your sugar goes up, it signals your pancreas to release insulin. When your sugar goes up, it gives signals to your pancreas to release insulin.Untreated high blood sugar or diabetes can damage many organs like nerves, brain, heart, kidneys, liver, Etc.

Different Types Of Diabetes:

There are a few types of diabetes:

1. Type 1 Diabetes is autoimmune diabetes. In this type, the immune system is not strong enough, and the body attacks itself and destroys the cells(beta cells that produce insulin) in the pancreas. But the cause of the attack is unclear. About 10% of people are caused by diabetes type 1
2. Type 2 Diabetes occurs when your body becomes resistant to insulin, and in this way, insulin is not produced to compensate for high blood sugar, then sugar builds up in your blood.

Prediabetes occurs when your blood sugar is higher than usual. But it`s not high enough to diagnose diabetes. Sometimes sugar level goes up and sometimes become normal.Gestational Diabetes is high blood sugar during pregnancy. Insulin-blocking hormone produced by placenta that causes this type of diabetes

General Symptoms:

Diabetes symptoms are caused by increasing sugar level:

1. Increased Hunger
2. Increased Thirst
3. Frequent Urination
4. Blurry Vision
5. Fatigue
6. Weight Loss
7. Sores that don`t heal

These are general symptoms:

Causes:

1. Type 1 Diabetes(Exact cause unknown. Immune system mistakenly attacks insulin cells and destroys them. Genes also play a role.)
2. Type 2 Diabetes( Genetics and Lifestyle these both factors are involved in this type. Overweight or obesity is the leading risk factor. Obesity or belly fat becomes resistant to insulin cells. This condition mainly runs in families.)
3. Gestational Diabetes(Due to hormonal changes during pregnancy, the Placenta produces hormones that make pregnant women sensitive to the effect of insulin. When they get pregnant, overweight women gain too much weight during pregnancy and cause gestational diabetes.)

Risk Factors:

1.Type 1 Diabetes (Parents or siblings).2.Type 2 Diabetes (Overweight, Age above 40, Physical inactivity, High blood pressure, High cholesterol, High triglycerides).3.Gestational Diabetes (overweight, PCOS, Age above 25, Had a gestational diabetes during a past history).

Complications:

Type 1, 2 Diabetes:

1. Heart Diseases, heart attack, stroke
2. Hearing loss
3. Foot damage or sores that don`t heal
4. Skin infections such as bacterial and fungal

Gestational Diabetes:

1. Higher than normal weight of birth
2. Premature birth
3. Low blood sugar
4. Cesarean delivery, commonly referred to C-section

How To Treat/Control Diabetes?

Our main topic or point is how we can control diabetes? Because diabetes is never cured, but by control, we can reduce their severe symptoms.

Type 1 Diabetes:

In type 1 diabetes, our body cannot produce insulin, so that`s why the primary treatment for type 1 diabetes is insulin.Four different insulin types are prescribed according to age and diabetes level.

1. Rapid Acting Insulin: It starts to work within 15 minutes and its effect last for 3-4 hours.
2. Short Acting Insulin: Start work within 30 minutes and last 6-8 hours.
3. Intermediate Acting Insulin: Start work within 1-2 hours and ends 12-18 hours.
4. Long-Acting Insulin: Start work within few hours and last 24 hours or longer.

Type 2 Diabetes:

Diet and Exercise can help you to reduce diabetes. Lifestyle changes effect good. If lifestyle changes are not enough than start medications.

Type Of Drug	Action	Example
Biguanides	Reduce the amount of glucose that your liver makes.	Metformin (Glucophage)
Sulfonylurea	Primary mechanism of action of glimepiride appears to be dependent stimulate the release of insulin from functioning of pancreatic beta-cells.	Getryl
An antidiabetic	Stimulate insulin secretion and inhibit glucagon secretion.	Vildagliptin50/500

These drugs are commonly used all over the Pakistan. Some people also take insulin with medicine to lower their blood sugar.

Gestational Diabetes:

A pregnant woman needs to monitor her blood sugar several times a day during pregnancy. Dietary changes or exercise may or may not enough to lower blood sugar during pregnancy.According to research, about 10-20% women need insulin during pregnancy. Insulin is safe for baby growth.

Diabetes And Diet:

Changing your diet and lifestyle is enough to control disease. Healthy eating patterns is main thing for diabetes management.                     

1. Drink more water daily.
2. Regular exercise.
3. Limit your carbs intake.
4. Well-balanced diet.          

This plate shows the amount of each food group you should eat.

5. Take 2Eggs daily.
6. High protein.
7. Avoid sugary/starchy foods.
8. Add mix vegetable salad (cucumber, cabbage, broccoli, olive oil)
9. Avoid processed foods.
10. Base your diet on whole-grain foods.
11. Dairy products should be nonfat or low fat.
12. Take nuts.
13. Use oils that are liquid at room temperature like canola oil, olive oil.
14. Manage your weight.

Choose healthy carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and low-fat milk, as part of your diabetes meal plan.

15. Physical activity is very important for everyone.

Drinking water during exercise is good to stay hydrated.

References:

• https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/diabetes.html
• https://www.healthline.com/health/ diabetes
• https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/diet-eating-physical-activity
• https://www.mims.com/philippines/drug/info/getryl?type=full
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21507182/