Diabetes: Its causes and symptoms

Today if we see the world’s scenario more than 380 million people are patients of Diabetes.

Diabetic patients are increasing worldwide and now it has been necessary for all of us to know about diabetes and know different preventive measures, causes, treatment, symptoms and all the information regarding diabetes.

What is diabetes?

To perform our day-to-day activities we all need energy and we get this energy with the help of glucose which is produced in our body after the digestion of carbohydrates.

Our liver also produces glucose. The cells present in our pancreas produces a hormone called insulin which further helps our blood to transfer the glucose in different cells of our body.

Insulin plays a vital role to make glucose level constant in our body. But sometimes due to our unhealthy eating habits and many other reasons the pancreas do not generate insulin and sometimes our body’s immune system starts destroying the insulin-producing cells. This causes lack of insulin in our body.

Whereas, in some cases the insulin which has been produced in our body is not accepted by the cells of our body and sometimes the produced insulin is not enough for our body. Due to these reasons, our body lacks insulin.

Further, our body- glucose cannot be transferred to different cells of the body due to the absence or lack of insulin. And when the blood sugar level (glucose) gets high in our body we suffer from diabetes.

To control diabetes our blood-sugar level must be constant. There are many types of diabetes but we should know at least 2 major types of diabetes. These 2 major types of diabetes are briefly described below:

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1diabetes can be seen mostly in youngsters but it can be diagnosed in adults too. 10% of the diabetes cases are of this type. In type-1 diabetes, our body does not produce insulin.

In some case, the body’s immune system itself starts to destroy the cells which produce insulin. This causes lack of insulin in the body and patients have to suffer from diabetes.

Causes

·         Genes may play a vital role is causing Type 1 diabetes.

·         The beta cells present in the pancreas which produces insulin is destroyed by the immune system which causes type 1 diabetes.

Symptoms

·         Feeling excessively thirsty

·         Weakness and fatigue

·         Female may constantly get yeast infection

·         Excessive hunger

·         Weight loss

·         Frequent urination

·         Unclear vision

·         Itchiness in genital areas

Treatment

·         Taking injections of insulin

·         Taking medicines by consulting the doctors

·         Eating healthy foods

·         Controlling cholesterol and blood-pressure

·         Monitoring blood-sugar level

Prevention

·         Eat healthy diet

·         Drinking plenty of water and eating fruits and vegetables

·         Do exercise

·         Controlling cholesterol

·         Controlling blood pressure

Type 2 Diabetes

90% of diabetes is of this type. Mostly adults (who are above 40) acquire this type of diabetes but youngsters and other age-group people can also acquire type-2 diabetes.

In type-2 diabetes the pancreas produces insulin but our body cells do not use this insulin and sometimes the produced insulin is not enough for our body and further, our body glucose cannot be transferred to the body cells. And blood-sugar level goes high in our body further causing diabetes.

Causes

·         When our body cannot produce enough insulin.

·         When the produced insulin is not used by the cells of our body.

·         Unhealthy eating habits

·         Lack of exercise

·         Obesity

·         Role of genes

Symptoms

(Symptoms of Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are same.)

Treatment

·         Use medicines prescribed by doctors

·         Eat healthy foods

·         Avoid deep fried foods

·         Drink plenty of water

·         monitoring blood-sugar level

Prevention

·         Control excessive eating habits

·         Avoid junk foods

·         Do exercise

·         Eat fruits and vegetable

Simple food charts for diabetic patients

1)    Eat fiber-containing carbohydrate foods

·         Brown rice

·         Cauliflower mash and whole-wheat pasta

·         Bran flakes with low sugar

·         Whole-grain bread

2)    Consume healthy fats

·         Peanut butter

·         Yogurt

·         Nuts

·         Flax seeds

·         Olive oil

·         Fish oil

(Drink plenty of water and eat lots of fruits and vegetables.)

(Do not consume deep fried foods and do not drink sodas and soft drinks)