Diabetes and ways to tackle it

Team L&M

As per estimates, about 415 million people the world over are living with diabetes, which means one in 11 adult persons has it. Over 46% of people with diabetes go undiagnosed. The figure is expected to rise to 642 million people living with diabetes worldwide by 2040.
In India, over 30 million people have now been diagnosed with diabetes. The CPR (Crude prevalence rate) is thought to be nine per cent in the urban areas of India, while in rural areas, the prevalence is approximately 3 per cent of the total population.
In such a scary scenario, it is important that we know all about this life-threatening diseases, says dietician Sheela Seharawat. Read on….

Lifestyle has a strong impact on one’s well-being. Earlier the lifestyle was different than today’s. People were following simpler and organic way of living. Though there were no such modern facilities of technology and science yet life was healthy and nice. Today’s lifestyle is more complex and synthetic. With the advancement of technology, science and other things, life has undoubtedly become easy and comfortable but has inclined to unhealthy lifestyle.

It has affected the health of people very strongly leading to various diseases. Diabetes is one among the lifestyle diseases that you find it in every other person. It is a disease in which the patient has high blood sugar level. People develop this condition when pancreas fails to produce insufficient insulin or the body’s cells fails to respond correctly to insulin. Diabetes is also referred as diabetes mellitus. If a person suffers from diabetes, he/she gets frequent urination and also feels thirst and hungry more often than normal.

Insulin is a kind of hormone that helps to convert glucose into energy. If pancreas fails to produce sufficient insulin, then glucose get stored in the blood that can cause various health problems. Even if the sugar levels are little elevated than normal, it can cause various serious health problems. So, it is very important for diabetics to manage the sugar levels to stay healthy.

Different types of diabetes
There are three types of diabetes- Type 1 diabetes, type 2diabetes and gestational diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes: In this condition, patient’s body doesn’t make insulin. In this condition the immune system destroys pancreas that it doesn’t function properly to produce insulin. It is also referred as insulin-dependent diabetes, early-onset diabetes and juvenile diabetes. It can appear at any age but it often comes in early age especially to children and young people. Type 1 diabetic has to be depended on insulin injection lifelong. They have to be very careful about their eating habits and have to follow healthy diet and do regular exercise. They need to do regular checkup of their blood sugar and accordingly provide treatment time to time till they are alive.

Type 2 diabetes: This is the most condition in which the patient’s body doesn’t produce sufficient insulin or the body cells doesn’t react properly to the insulin for which the glucose level doesn’t come to control and stays in blood without getting converted to energy. This is the common type of diabetes which can be controlled by obtaining proper weight, following healthy, nutritious diet and doing regular exercise.  Over weight and obese people are more prone to this disease than the people with normal and healthy weight. Too much body fat can increase not only the risk of diabetes but also other risks related to cardiovascular and metabolic system. Unhealthy lifestyle, consumption of alcohol and junk can also increase the risk of this type of diabetes. This disease is also hereditary in nature.

Gestational diabetes: This affects to pregnant women as the sugar levels remain high during pregnancy that the pancreas fails to produce sufficient insulin to convert it to energy. Pregnant women are asked to diagnose their sugar levels as the chances become higher to get gestational diabetes among most of the women. Though, the condition doesn’t become serious and most often get controlled by diet and exercise. In few cases, medication is suggested to bring control over sugar level in the blood as it can lead to complication in child birth.

The rate of diabetic cases has increased tremendously over the few years. The main reason to contribute is today’s unhealthy lifestyle. People are more prone to unhealthy eating, drinking, smoking and irregular or completely no exercise for which young people are getting type 2 diabetes more in number. People with family history and women who had gestational diabetes are more like to get diabetes in later stage of life.

Though diabetes can be controlled by following healthy lifestyle and medication still there are various health problems one may develop like heart problem, stroke, kidney issues, eye problem, dental problem, neurological problem and even foot problem.

Various kinds of tests for diagnosing diabetes
Diabetes can be determined by various ways. Here are the possible tests done for diagnosing normal metabolism, pre diabetes and diabetes –

The A1C test

• If the value come 6.5% means diabetes
• If the value comes between 5.7% and 5.99% that means prediabetes

The FPG (fasting plasma glucose) test

• If the value comes 126 mg/dl means diabetes
• If it comes 100 mg/dl and 125.99 mg/dl that means prediabetes

Another test is called as The OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test)

• If it comes a value of 200 mg/dl means diabetes
• If the value comes between 140 and 199.9 mg/dl means prediabetes

However, people with diabetes gets mild symptoms for which lot of people don’t realize that they already have developed the problem. Still there are few indications like nausea, stomach ache and vomiting for type 1 diabetes. Frequent urination, increased level of thirst and hunger, sudden weight loss and even weight gain, fatigue, irritability, blurred vision, low healing process for minor cut and bruise, itchy skin, swollen gums, low sexual appetite and numbness or tingling sensation in foot and palms are the main symptom for type 2 diabetes. If somebody gets such symptom, it is highly recommended to visit doctor and get the test done.

Combat diabetes and other metabolic problems by following healthy lifestyle
There is also good news for the diabetic is that it can be controlled and other health problems can be avoided. The foremost thing is to follow healthy lifestyle, avoiding junk and processed food and eatables loaded with sugar, doing regular exercise and work out. Doctor may prescribe medication in form of tablets or insulin to get it controlled. So, make healthy choices to avoid this lifestyle disease and stay healthy and happy life long.