subject: Types, Causes and Treatment for Diabetes [print this page] Types, Causes and Treatment for Diabetes Types, Causes and Treatment for Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which your body is unable to properly use and store glucose (a form of sugar). Glucose backs up in the bloodstream -- causing your blood glucose or "sugar" to rise too high. Well, Diabetes is not an easy thing to confront. The 2008 diabetic statistics of the United States shows more than 24 million reported cased of diabetes, around 6 million unreported cases and around 57 million cased of pre-diabetes. The number is sure to have increased in the last 2 years and is still rising, making it one of the main reasons of death in the whole of United States.
The different types of Diabetes:
There are two major types of diabetes.
Type 1(also called juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent) diabetes, in this type of diabetes the body completely stops producing any insulin (a hormone that enables your body to use glucose found in food). As is evident with the name, this type of diabetes affects young adults. Also, people with Type 1 diabetes are totally insulin deficient and therefore must take daily insulin injections to survive.
Type 2(also called adult-onset or non insulin-dependent) diabetes, in this type of disease, the body does produce insulin, but not enough to properly convert food into energy. This form of diabetes usually occurs in people who are over 40, overweight, and have a family history of diabetes.
Causes of Diabetes
Drugs such as steroids, Dilantin, and others may elevate the blood sugar through a variety of mechanisms. Certain other drugs, such as alloxan, streptozocin, and thiazide diuretics, are toxic to the beta cells of the pancreas and can cause diabetes. Certain syndromes (for example, Prader-Willi, Down's, Progeria, and Turner's) may result in a hyperglycemic state; if this state is prolonged, the result can be permanent diabetes.
Diabetes resulting in an insulin-dependent state is classified as Type 1 diabetes. While Type 1 diabetes affects only between 5 to10 percent of the diabetic population, its effects on the body can be worse than other forms of diabetes. In the past, Type 1 has been known as juvenile or juvenile-onset diabetes (because it is usually diagnosed in those under thirty), brittle diabetes, unstable diabetes, and ketosis-prone diabetes. People in this classification more frequently exhibit the classic symptoms, usually with ketones present in blood and urine. A blood-sugar level of 800 mg/dl (44 mmol) or more, especially if ketones are not present, indicates a diagnosis of hyperglycemic hyperosmolar nonketotic syndrome (a state in which the body is extremely dry (dehydrated), the chemicals in the body are concentrated, and the blood sugar is high).
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Treatment for Diabetes
As symptoms of diabetes tend to show up much later than the condition occurs in your body, it is advisable to have your blood sugar levels diagnosed periodically.
Even if there are natural remedies that have been developed for the treatment for diabetes, insulin injections and implantable insulin pumps are the most sought out ones. Type 1 diabetes can be treated with exercise, insulin and a balanced diet. Type 2 diabetes is first treated with weight reduction, a diabetic diet and exercise. Weight reduction and exercising increases the body's sensitivity to insulin, thus controlling blood sugar elevations.
When these methods fail to lower the blood sugar levels, oral medications are used. If oral diabetes medications are insufficient and do not help lower the glucose levels in blood, insulin treatment is used.
