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
- 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:
·
- 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.
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