DIABETES: things you need to know

Diabetes is a disease that is not often spoken about in the same vein as some other more ‘mainstream’ diseases, yet it affects a major portion of the world’s population.
This is due to the fact that people learn to ‘live with it,’ even though the mortality rate would suggest otherwise.
Scientist thinks that a 'cure' for type 1 diabetes will be available within years. But what do we know about diabetes?

Those with diabetes are at high risk of developing the disease, which can lead to complications such as heart disease, stroke and amputations 

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is an inability to control blood sugar levels. Ordinarily, your pancreas creates a hormone called insulin in response to the amount of glucose in your blood: if there is a high level of glucose, your body churns out insulin, which tells your cells to take in the glucose and convert it into energy the cells can use. If you have diabetes, your cells fail to do so, either because you are not making enough insulin or because the insulin isn’t doing its job properly.

Type 1 diabetes develops when the insulin-producing cells in the body have been destroyed and the body is unable to produce any insulin at all. In type 2 diabetes, the most common, your organs don’t make enough.

How many people have the condition?

More than 1 million people suffer from diabetes in Ngeria.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that worldwide the figure is 347 million; in 2004, 3.4 million died of complications related to high blood sugar. More than four fifths of those deaths came in developing and underdeveloped countries.


What are the symptoms?

From my little research, I found out that the main symptoms of diabetes are: “feeling very thirsty; urinating more frequently than usual, particularly at night; feeling very tired; weight loss and loss of muscle bulk; itching around the penis or vagina, or frequent episodes of thrush; cuts or wounds that heal slowly; blurred vision (caused by the lens of the eye becoming dry)”. In type 1 diabetes, these symptoms come on quickly; in type 2 diabetes, they develop slowly, and many sufferers do not notice the onset of the condition, sometimes for years, because the early symptoms are non-specific.
The disease worsens the longer it is left untreated, so i advice you should therefore visit your doctor as soon as possible if you have symptoms.

What are the risk factors?

Obesity and high blood sugar are the warning flags, high blood pressure may also set in.

What does it do to life expectancy and quality of life?

It is possible to live a normal life with diabetes, if sufferers eat healthily and take exercise and manage medication (if needed) well. However, on average, diabetes sufferers have shorter life expectancies: roughly 10 years shorter than average in the case of type 2 diabetes, according to Diabetes UK , and 20 years in the case of type 1. However, those numbers are changing as diabetes care improves.
Left untreated, diabetes can cause blindness, heart disease, stroke, nerve damage (sometimes leading to ulcers and even amputation of limbs), and kidney failure.

What type of food do they eat?

This is the most important question. A nutritionist and a medical doctor should be consulted for the type of food to eat.
Food with high sugar content (mostly food rich in carbohydrates)  should be avoided. Water should be taken to prevent dehydration.

In addition EXERCISING is very good.

Live healthy