Types of Diabetes

Diabetes, usually referred as diabetes mellitus, is a metabolic disease characterized by high blood glucose. High blood glucose levels can occur either when the body cannot produce insulin or when the body cells fail to respond to insulin. People with diabetes experience common symptoms such as thirst, hunger and frequent urination.

Fast Stats and Facts on Diabetes

Below are the key stats and facts on diabetes you should know.

Type 1 diabetes is a condition where one’s body does not produce insulin. Type 1 diabetes accounts for 10% of all diabetes cases.

• Diabetes is a chronic condition that causes elevated blood sugar levels.
•  Type 2 diabetes is a condition when the body does not produce enough insulin for proper sugar balance. It accounts for 90% of all diabetes cases worldwide.
• In 2013 alone, statistics showed that over 382 million patients had diabetes across the world.
• Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that affects women during pregnancy.
• Diabetes is characterized by symptoms such as intense thirst, weight gain, frequent urination, fatigue, unusual weight loss, bruises or cuts that don’t heal fast, numbness, male sexual dysfunction and tingling hands and feet.
•  Diabetes increases ones risk for cardiovascular disease.

Types of Diabetes

1. Type 1 diabetes

This is a condition where your body does not produce insulin. This condition is also referred as juvenile diabetes, insulin-dependent diabetes or early onset diabetes. Type 1 diabetes develops in teenage years or early adulthood especially before 40s. It is not as common as type 2 diabetes as it only affects 10 percent of the total people with diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an immune disorder that develop when the immune system attacks the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, limiting the body’s ability to produce insulin. People with this condition require insulin injections to live.

        2  Type 2 diabetes

This is a type of diabetes where your body produces insufficient insulin required for body proper functioning. This condition can as well occur when your body cells become insulin resistant and cannot react to it. More than 90% of people with diabetes suffer from type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes can be managed by controlling symptoms through weight loss, enough exercise, monitoring blood sugar levels, and eating a healthy diet. However, type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease meaning its symptoms can get worse to an extent where the patient may require insulin injection to live. This condition is associated with obese and overweight people. Other factors that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes development include poor lifestyle, sedentary lifestyle, exercise habits, unhealthy diet, and old age.

      3  Gestational diabetes

This is a type of diabetes that occurs in women only during pregnancy. This condition develops when there are very high levels of glucose in the blood but the body is unable to produce enough insulin to transport it to cells. This leads to extremely high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. Patients suffering this condition can manageit simply with diet and exercise. Statistics show that 10-20 percent of gestational diabetes patients have to take insulin or diabetes control medications. Unmanaged gestational diabetes can lead to pregnancy complications, complications during childbirth, and abnormally large babies.

This type affects females during pregnancy. Some women have very high levels of glucose in their blood, and their bodies are unable to produce enough insulin to transport all of the glucose into their cells, resulting in progressively rising levels of glucose. Risk factors for gestational diabetes include high blood cholesterol, unhealthy fats such as animal fats, lack of exercise, and being overweight.

Diabetes’ Effect on body

Diabetic patients’ bodies do not make enough insulin or cannot use it effectively. Due to this deficit, the amount of blood sugar increases becoming high than normal. As insulin is important in mobilization of glucose to cells and its conversion to fuel, insufficient insulin can lead to body 

complications as discussed below:

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•       Effect on circulatory system

Diabetes can cause damage to the large blood cells and small blood vessels leading to macrovascular and microvascular diseases respectively. Some complications associated with macrovascular disease include stroke and heart attack.

Microvascular disease can cause eye, kidney, and nerve problems, but good control of diabetes can help prevent these complications.

•          Effect on nervous system

Diabetes can cause damage to the nerves resulting to diabetic neuropathy. Damaged nerves can affect the perception for pain, cold and heat. Diabetes can make one susceptible to injuries and as if that is not enough, the chances of noticing these injuries are low making the to develop into infections. Diabetes can also lead to leaky blood vessels in the eye a condition referred as retinopathy. This can damage your vision which may also lead to blindness.

•          Effect on integumentary system

Diabetes can as well affect the skin which is the largest body organ. The skin is mostly affected due to lack of moisture from high sugar that causes the skin on the feet to dry to an extreme of cracking. Unmanaged diabetes can lead to the following skin diseases:

o   Diabetic dermopathy, which is characterized by brown patches on the skin

o   Eruptive xanthomatosis, which causes yellow bumps with a red ring on the skin

o   Digital sclerosis, which is characterized by thick skin, especially on feet and hands.

•          Effect on urinary system

Diabetes can as well damage the kidneys, affecting your ability to filter water and waste products from the body. In case your doctor detects microabuminuria or high amount of proteins in the urine, this this suggests that your kidneys are not functioning normally. Kidney disease that develops as a result of diabetes is referred as diabetic nephropathy.

•         Effects on endocrine digestive and excretory systems

If insufficient insulin is produced by your body, or the body cannot use it, alternative hormones are used to convert fat into energy. This leads to elevated levels of ketone bodies and acids in the body, causing a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis. This condition can be serious causing symptoms such as excessive urination, intense thirst and fatigue. Ketoacidosis can even lean to unconsciousness and death.

Type 2 diabetes can lead to diabetic hyperglycemia which is characterized by high glucose levels in the blood and not ketones. This condition can lead to dehydration; therefore, victims are advised to consume enough fluids.