Diabetes - A Basic Preview

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder mostly characterized by the overproduction of glucose blood sugar. The term comes from the Greek word ‘diabainein’ which means ‘to pass through’. It’s a reference to one of the most common symptoms of diabetes: excessive urine production. Diabetes affects more than 171 million people worldwide and that number is expected to double in the next 20 years alone.

The high level of glucose blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, is caused by the inability of the pancreas to produce adequate amounts of the hormone insulin. Insulin is responsible for the metabolism of sugar in the body and inadequate amounts of the hormone, causes this sugar to go unutilized and making its presence felt in the blood of the patient. Sometimes the pancreas produces defective insulin, which, again, can lead to diabetes.

Types of Diabetes

The most common form of diabetes is diabetes mellitus. ‘Mellitus’ is Latin for ‘sweet taste’, which is another common symptom of the disorder. There are other more rare forms of diabetes, such as diabetes insipidus. Diabetes insipidus can be caused by damage to the pituitary gland, in which case it is called pituitary diabetes insipidus or DI. It can also be caused by damage to the kidneys, in which case it is called nephrogenic DI.

There are primarily three types of diabetes mellitus:

Type 1 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes
Type 3 diabetes (also called gestational diabetes)

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes has also been at various times called Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM), juvenile diabetes and childhood diabetes. Most people are healthy when they become affected by the disorder and to date there is no known way to prevent its onset. The most common characteristic of this disorder is the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin. As long as the proper treatment is followed, a person with this kind of diabetes will not experience difficult life-changing problems.

Type 2 Diabetes

This is also referred to as adult-onset diabetes and as the term suggests, occurs mostly in adults. It is also called Non Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) and is caused by a defective insulin process coupled with an inadequate response to insulin. The first symptom of this disorder is a high level of blood sugar due to reduced insulin sensitivity in the cells of the body. This is because of a malfunction in the insulin receptor in the cell membrane.

Factors influencing the onset of this disease primarily include obesity, with 90 percent of people in the world suffering from type 2 diabetes also suffering from obesity. Other factors include genetic predispositions as well as age. Over the last decade, even children have been found to be suffering from type 2 diabetes.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes occurs mostly in pregnant women and disappears after childbirth. However, these women have a strong tendency to suffer from diabetes at a later age. Almost 20 to 50 percent of women with gestational diabetes have been found to be suffering from type 2 diabetes later.

Diabetes Symptoms and Complications

There are three primary symptoms of diabetes. The first is the condition of frequent urination or polyuria, increased thirst levels resulting in increased consumption of liquids or polydipsia and increased appetite or polyphagia.

Diabetes is incurable, but there are effective treatments available to help contain the disease. If left untreated, however, diabetes can cause a wide range of complications. Besides high levels of sugar in the blood, diabetes can cause chronic renal failure, cardiac ailments, neural damage, microvascular damage that can result in impotence, retinal damage, which is one of the main causes of non age-related blindness in adults and also poor wound and scar tissue healing that can lead to gangrene formation at the affected area and possible amputation.

Treatment Options for Diabetes

As mentioned earlier, there is no cure for diabetes. However, preventive measures are possible. The main thing is to ensure that the sugar levels are under control. Other secondary but equally vital steps include a change in lifestyle, including finding ways to control blood pressure and cholesterol, stopping nicotine intake in any form, exercising and increased physical activity, etc.

While we say that diabetes is incurable, there is one special circumstance when a type 1 diabetes patient may considered himself cured - if he is able to receive a kidney-pancreas transplant and also become insulin independent. However, this is not to say that the patient will be totally cured. He has to remain on an immunorepressive drug for a long time and there is also the possibility of the autoimmune phenomenon developing in the transplanted organ. Besides, it is not possible for all diabetes patients, only in those that have a diabetes-related nephropathy.

Physicians and researchers are still looking for the all-important but elusive cure for diabetes. Different avenues have been suggested as possibilities, stem cell research being one of them. With attention, care and discipline, Diabetes may pose challenges, but it does not need to be a life-threatening issue.