When you heard of diabetes the first thing that you might have thought is “sweets” well, that’s justifiable since one of this disease’s character is the high blood sugar of the patient.

Diabetes is often referred as diabetes mellitus by the doctors, this is a group of metabolic disease wherein a patient has high blood glucose either due to inadequate insulin production or the body cells does not respond properly to insulin.

In this article, the information that you need to know about diabetes will be discussed briefly but thoroughly for you to be equipped with the right knowledge in preventing or treating this disease. Ready? Here’s your bible on diabetes, the silent killer.

Fast Facts on Diabetes

• The cases of people having diabetes jumped to an approximate count of 50 percent—wherein there are 30 million Americans and 422 million people worldwide.
• The leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart failure, stroke, and amputations is Diabetes.
• Diabetes places a financial burden to everyone wherein there is an approximate of $245 billion annual cost from the American public.
• Type 1 diabetes means the body does not produce insulin, which has an approximate 10 percent of all diabetes cases.
• Type 2 diabetes is the most common type with 90 percent of all diabetes cases. This type means that the body does not produce enough insulin for proper function.

Diabetes Symptoms

Metabolism is the way our body digest the food we consume for growth and energy. However, diabetes is a disorder of metabolism so it jeopardizes the body through ruining our body’s metabolism.

The symptoms of diabetes vary in how much your blood sugar has risen. Those people with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes might not experience the symptoms beforehand unlike the type 1 diabetes wherein symptoms tend to show quickly and may be more severe.

Here are some of Type 1 and 2 diabetes’ signs:

• Increased thirst
• Slow healing wounds
• Extreme hunger
• Fatigue & irritability
• Blurred visions
• Frequent infections in the body such as skin or gums infections and vaginal infections

The type 1 diabetes may develop at any age which often appears during childhood or adolescence thus its name “juvenile diabetes”. On the other hand, type 2 which is the common type, is more common in people older than 40 but may also develop at any age.

Cause of Diabetes

So, what causes this disease? There are many factors that risk an individual in getting diabetes and it varies in type. For type 1 diabetes, it occurs when the immune system attack-destroy the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. A study shows that this type is caused by genes and environmental factors such as viruses that could possibly trigger the disease.

Type 2 diabetes is caused by several factors, including lifestyle factors and genes such as being an overweight or being an obese individual due to physical inactivity or an unhealthy diet. Genes and family history could also impact the risk since certain genes make you more likely develop the type 2 diabetes.

In addition, insulin resistance is also one of the causes of type 2 diabetes especially it usually begins with insulin resistance, wherein your muscle, fat, and liver cells do not use insulin well, resulting in needing more insulin to help glucose enter cells. At first, the pancreas would fill in and make more insulin to keep up the demand but it eventually can’t make enough insulin over time making blood glucose rise.

Treatments and Medication

The major goal in treating type 1 and 2 diabetes is controlling the glucose level within the normal range of an individual with minimal excursions to low or high level. However, the types of diabetes determine how a patient should be treated and be medicated.

In type 1 diabetes, an individual should be treated with insulin, exercise, and a healthy diet. For its medication, high blood medications such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs); Aspirin to protect your heart; cholesterol-lowering drugs.

For type 2, weight reduction and exercise are the most important thing to do. For its medications, diabetes medications such as Metformin (Glucophage, Glumetza, others). You could ask your doctor for any OTC medications for you to have. Additionally, visit pharmaquotes.com to have discount coupons and know more of your medications.

Takeaway

Diabetes is a disease that should not be overlooked nor take lightly of, which is why you should be mindful of your lifestyle especially if your family has a history of diabetes. And since medicines could be expensive, try visiting the pharmaquotes.com for their discount coupons on these types of medicines.