What is Diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus or commonly called diabetes, is a condition when body can not produce enough insulin; or when body can not use insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, which is needed to convert glucose into energy for daily life. Most of the food we eat is broken down into glucose, the form of sugar in the blood. Glucose is the main source of fuel for the body.
When we eat, the pancreas automatically produces the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into our cells. In people with diabetes, however, the pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced. The cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise appear to play roles.
There are three major type of diabetes :
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body unable to produce any insulin. A person who has type 1 diabetes must inject insulin daily to live.
Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is the most common of the three major types and accounts for between 85 – 95% of all people with diabetes. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance). This form of diabetes is associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, physical inactivity, and ethnicity. About 80 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight.
Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is diabetes that happens for the first time when a woman is pregnant. Gestational diabetes goes away when you have your baby, but it does increase your risk for having diabetes later.
Pre-diabetes
Pre-diabetes indicates a condition that occurs when a person’s blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Many people destined to develop type 2 diabetes spend many years in a state of pre-diabetes which has been termed “America’s largest healthcare epidemic.
Other forms of diabetes mellitus include congenital diabetes, which is due to genetic defects of insulin secretion, cystic fibrosis-related diabetes, steroid diabetes induced by high doses of glucocorticoids, and several forms of monogenic diabetes.
Some cases of diabetes are caused by the body’s tissue receptors not responding to insulin (even when insulin levels are normal, which is what separates it from type 2 diabetes); this form is very uncommon. Genetic mutations (autosomal or mitochondrial) can lead to defects in beta cell function.
Abnormal insulin action may also have been genetically determined in some cases. Any disease that causes extensive damage to the pancreas may lead to diabetes (for example, chronic pancreatitis and cystic fibrosis). Diseases associated with excessive secretion of insulin-antagonistic hormones can cause diabetes (which is typically resolved once the hormone excess is removed). Many drugs impair insulin secretion and some toxins damage pancreatic beta cells.
All forms of diabetes have been treatable since insulin became available in 1921, and type 2 diabetes may be controlled with medications. Both type 1 and 2 are chronic conditions that usually cannot be cured. Pancreas transplants have been tried with limited success in type 1 diabetes; gastric bypass surgery has been successful in many with morbid obesity and type 2 diabetes. Gestational diabetes usually resolves after delivery. Diabetes without proper treatments can cause many complications.
Acute complications include hypoglycemia, diabetic ketoacidosis, or nonketotic hyperosmolar coma. Serious long-term complications include cardiovascular disease, chronic renal failure, retinal damage. Adequate treatment of diabetes is thus important, as well as blood pressure control and lifestyle factors such as smoking cessation and maintaining a healthy body weight.
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