Diabetesolutions.org

What is diabetes?

Diabetes occurs when the sugar level in your blood is higher than a normal value. Excessive sugar in blood is harmful for health. Sugar in your blood comes from digestion. In order to get to the cells where it is used as fuel, glucose needs insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas. Diabetes occurs because of insufficient insulin from the pancreas or because of cellular lack of sensibility to insulin. In both cases glucose level in blood exceeds normal values.

Diabetes signs and symptoms:

• Excessive thirst
• Frequent urinating
• Hunger or exaggerated tiredness
• Weight loss without a reason
• Slow recovery of wounds
• Dry skin, with itching sensation
• Loss of sensibility at the feet level
• Sight problems

There are more types of diabetes, but two of them are more popular:

1. Diabetes, type I, juvenile or which is dependent on insulin, and which occurs in the case of children or young people. It is considered an auto immune disease, in which the immune system attacks cells which produce insulin from the pancreas and it can’t produce enough insulin any more. These patients often need insulin for the rest of their lives.

2. Diabetes, type II, which is a disease specific to adults and which does not mean treatment with insulin. It usually occurs in the case of people older than 40 and it is the most popular type (90-95% of the total). In the case of these people, the pancreas produces insulin, but the organism can’t use it efficiently. The result is glucose accumulation in the blood. Type II diabetes occurs in 80% of the situations in the case of overweight people. Recent data have established that it means cells resistance to insulin action provoked by excessive consumption of animal fats.

The best solution in the case of the second type of diabetes is a diet recommended by your doctor.

Diabetes is treated mainly by two factors: by medication and by diet. Irrespective of the medication chosen in your case, you must be preoccupied to have an optimal weight. There are people who, at the beginning lose a lot of weight. They are thin, skinny, and they appear to be always ill. They are rare cases. Most often diabetes appears in the case of people who are too fat.

Treatment of type 2 diabetes

In the case of type 2 diabetes, after a meal, the insulin secretion is slow and insufficient, and it determines an exaggerated and extended growth of sugar level. In some cases these problems can be solved without medication, only through diet. In most of the cases the treatment of type 2 diabetes consists in taking pills, associated with diet and physical exercise. Oral treatment is efficient as long as the pancreas secretes insulin. In time, in the case of some patients it becomes inefficient and the only optimal treatment is insulin.

Oral treatment in the case of type 2 diabetes

Pills used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes can be divided in more groups:

- Based on sulfonylurea

- The first substance in a new class of oral medication against diabetes: lunch sugar level regulators.

They stimulate the insulin secretion by the pancreas during short periods, thus protecting the pancreatic cell against overcharge. Medication based on sulfonylurea has as main effect the pancreas stimulation in order to produce more insulin. There are some pills, too which increase the absorption of glucose by the cells.

Treatment with insulin in type 2 diabetes

Treatment with insulin remains the last hope when diet, physical exercise and oral therapy don’t succeed to assure an acceptable control of sugar level. Treatment with insulin will determine a general improvement of metabolism, with normal values of sugar level and fats, a better mood, from the physical and psychical point of view, preventing diabetes subsequent complications. A lot of persons suffering from type 2 diabetes are afraid of the change from pills to insulin and they are worried by the fact that they must inject insulin themselves. Modern injection devices permit a safer insulin injection, so that more people accept the treatment with insulin now.

Most of the people consider that the food they eat changes into energy and that’s all. They ignore the fact that the organism works for them, it digests food and converts carbohydrates in a kind of sugar called glucose, which enters the blood circuit. Furthermore, the pancreas produces insulin, a hormone which travels through the organism, connected to receptors at the surface of the cells. Once attached to the receptors, insulin acts like a key which opens the cell, so that glucose enters the cell and it is used as a source of energy. If the body does not need glucose for energy, it is deposited as fat tissue.

This process is interrupted by diabetes. Millions of people are diagnosed with diabetes, and doctors think that there are other millions of cases which are not diagnosed.

There are two types of diabetes. The first type is based on dependence on insulin, as the pancreas is not able anymore to produce it. Patients need daily injections with insulin.

The second type of diabetes is not based on dependence on insulin, and it may be caused by obesity or sedentary life.

In order to manage diabetes, you should take into account the following aspects.

Firstly, if you are overweight, or in your family there are members who suffer from this disease, or if during pregnancy sugar level in your blood was high, you should have check it on a regular basis.

Secondly, you must be careful not to consume too much sugar or fat foods, or food which is too rich in animal proteins: meat or cheese.

To continue, you should reduce salt consumption, but you should eat more fibers, contained by integral cereals, beans or vegetables.

As far as alcohol is concerned, it should be consumed moderately. Your disease should be a family project, so that you don’t feel frustrated because of your diet. They should eat the same food as a diabetic person, and you need a nutritional plan.

Diabetes can be easily controlled if you drink a lot of water, if you try to reduce stress, and if you keep monitoring any change in your organism since you discovered this disease.