Diabetes

DIABETES is a where your body makes too little insulin or insulin that doesn't work, allowing sugar levels to build up in your blood stream. Diabetes that starts as a kid is from no insulin being made whereas diabetes that starts late in life tends to be from too little insulin being made, or insulin that doesn't work and is associated with being overweight.

Insulin is a chemical made in your tummy by an organ called the pancreas (pronounced: pan-cree-ass). Insulin tells cells like your muscles and fat tissue to suck up glucose (sugar) from the blood. This is important because high levels of sugar become poisonous. When the pancreas senses high blood sugar it squirts out insulin to lower it and protect your body.

Kid onset diabetes is caused by your pancreas not squirting out any insulin to combat high blood sugar. It is caused by early destruction of pancreas cells by viral infection or by the body attacking the pancreas inappropriately (autoimmune destruction). Once destroyed there's currently no cure. But we are experimenting at implanting new pancreas tissue.

Adult onset diabetes is caused by either by a pancreas that's not squirting out enough insulin or the insulin that it does, not effectively stimulating your other tissues to suck sugar from the blood. This form of diabetes is most often found in persons grossly overweight.

Diabetes is a multi-factorial disease. There is no one cause of all cases, but rather it happens by an interplay of many factors.

We do know however that careful diet - poor in refined sugars and starches - exercise, and weight control, lower your risk.

Passing large amounts of urine often. Waking up most nights to pass urine.
Thirst often during the day out of the ordinary.
Sudden weight loss with the above.
Frequent or severe skin or vaginal infections with non-virulent bugs - thrush, boils, ringworm.

After listening to your story a doctor will test if you have diabetes by taking some blood and counting how much sugar is in it. The gold standard is for you to arrive at their office in the morning without having eaten any breakfast for the first blood test, and then after drinking a sweet drink with a known amount of sugar in it, testing again (called an oral glucose challenge). If either is highter than a predetermined level, diabetes is diagnosed.

Urine samples are traditionally used by doctors and clinics to screen patients for diabetes - a form of early detection. A dip-stick is placed into a sample of urine. If high amounts of sugar are spilling from the blood into this urine, the stick will change color. Once diabetes is suspected, then the blood tests as above are conducted.

'Kid' Juvenile onset diabetes is caused by a pancreas that is making no insulin. TREATMENT for this type of DIABETES therefore is to replace the missing insulin through injections of insulin taken from pigs, cows, or artificial human insulin. Doses vary from once a day to three times a day as different preparations are last circulate for different times in the human body.

Adult onset diabetes is caused by a pancreas that is making too little, or poorly functioning insulin. This is treated by stimulating your pancreas to squirt out more insulin or by supplementing the insulin you do make with injectable insulin. Drugs that stimulate your pancreas into action are called 'oral hypoglycemics'. Early in the course of mild adult diabetes, exercise and a low sugar diet can be enough to bring blood sugar levels back within normal range.

For all types of diabetes, monitoring your blood sugar level often is ideal. This is done by pricking your finger with a needle and dropping a droplet of blood onto a machine that reads blood sugar levels. This gives you immediate feedback as to whether your blood sugar is where it should be or not and your medication can be adjusted accordingly.

It is important while on medication for diabetes not to miss meals as this can then lead to your blood sugar dropping too low from your medication which is called hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia symptoms are: feeling cloudy headed, sweating, drowsiness, and confusion.