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Diabetes Mellitus
Syed Aoun Ali
Forman Christian College University
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Abstract
Diabetes Mellitus is a body metabolic disease, in which body fails to produce enough insulin or
body cells don’t respond to insulin which is produced by its own body. Two types of diabetes,
diabetes type 1 and 2 were discussed in this paper. Symptoms of diabetes and its diagnostic
treatments, and certain factors like environmental and genetic factors and their different available
treatments along with some other latest treatments as suggested in medical research papers were
also mentioned in this paper.
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Diabetes Mellitus
In this disease body metabolic activity is disturbed because of unregulated blood sugar level.
This is a very ancient disease, in those times it is associated with sweet urine and excessive
muscle loss.
Every day we eat food which is converted into glucose during and after digestion it became the
part of blood. Glucose provides us energy to perform our daily activities, walking, running
riding bike, etc. Normally our body regulates this amount of glucose as required by the body
with the help of hormone, Insulin which is produced by pancreas, a small organ between
stomach and liver. In diabetes body fails to regulate the production of Insulin which results in
tow conditions hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. There are three types of diabetes, Diabetes
type 1 and 2 and gestational diabetes. (e Medicine health)
Statistics about Diabetes
346 million people worldwide have diabetes. In Pakistan 6.9 million have diabetes while in
United States of America 18.8 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, where NonHispanic blacks have highest figure of diabetes 12.6%. Asian Americans have 8.4% while nonHispanic whites have 7.1%. According to gender, statistics shows men are more in number 13
million while women are 12.6 million. People under the age of 20 are 186,300 and peoples above
the age of 60 are 12.2 million. (American Diabetes Association, The Nation)
Types of Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes (Pub Med Health, Medicine Net)
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This type of insulin effects peoples at every age but most often it is diagnosed in children and
young adults. In this type body produces insufficient insulin or in later stages fails to produces
insulin. Others names of Type 1 diabetes are insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), or
juvenile onset diabetes mellitus.
Type 2 Diabetes (Pub Med Health, Diabetes Pakistan)
This is the second type of diabetes, and most common among diabetes patients. In this type of
diabetes body cells doesn’t respond to its own body’s insulin, especially fat and muscle cells.
Gestational Diabetes
This type produces high blood glucose level during pregnancy. Along with others symptoms of
diabetes, patients also experiences frequent infections of bladder, vagina, and skin.
Causes
There are several causes of being diabetic, our life style, eating habits and food. Nowadays
previous medical conditions and Genetics of patients are also measured during diagnoses.
Life style and eating habits plays a great role in diabetes, peoples with abnormal eating habits are
on higher risk of being diabetic, because continuous eating or eat more than appetite causes extra
burden on pancreas to produce more insulin if these peoples are not exercising according to their
food intake, this will eventually fails the ability of pancreas to produce insulin. Obesity is found
be associated with type 2 diabetes according to some statistics approximately 55% of patients
diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have obesity. (Diabetes Pakistan)
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Type 1 and 2 of diabetes can also be partially inherited in families. It has some genetic links
which causes the malfunctions of pancreas insulin producing cells. But still it needs
environmental factors, which can be controlled after analyzing family history of diabetes.
So by controlling environmental factors it is cure able, and doing regular exercise we can easily
stop it.
Symptoms
Diabetes is a metabolic disease, so its symptoms are very diverse and multidimensional, effects
many parts and organs of body. High sugar level in blood causes many symptoms some of them
are following regarding diabetes type 1. (Pub Med Health)
Blurry vision
Excess of thirst
Body Fatigue
Frequent urination
Hunger
Weight loss
Diabetes Type 2 usually develops slowly; so many people develop no symptoms even with high
blood sugar levels. (Pub Med Health)
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Diagnoses
The most basic test for the diagnoses of diabetes is urine test. Health care worker and lab conduct
this test which estimates the amount of glucose (sugar) in patient’s urine. This test alone does not
diagnose diabetes. Blood test gives more accurate diagnoses of blood sugar level; there are two
ways of doing blood glucose test. (Pub Med Health)
Fasting blood glucose test, in this test, few drops of blood is collected in morning to calculate the
overnight blood glucose level. Its range for normal person is 100 to 110mg/dL, persons having
raised levels can be diagnose with type 2 diabetes.
The second way of testing blood glucose level requires blood testing after two hours of intake of
food, to calculate the amount of glucose produced. For this test range for normal person is 120150mg/dL.
The latest test for calculating the diabetes or chances of being diabetic can be calculated from
Hemoglobin A1c test. The percentage for normal person from this test should be less than 5.7%.
The Pre-diabetes patients have their percentages in between of 5.7% - 6.4%, and diabetic patients
have 6.5% or higher. (Pub Med Health)
Prevention & Treatment
There are many treatment of diabetes, medically direct injections of insulin is the most common
and perfect way of treating diabetes. The other ways of treating diabetes are exercises, complete
food care.
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The most important way to treat diabetes is to keep a balance diet, one can easily control his/her
diet my controlling the amount of sugar, while keeping more fiber content in food. In this way
pre diabetic and diabetic peoples can easily control high glucose level of their blood.
Exercise also plays a great role in maintain glucose level, because by daily exercise we can burn
our extra glucose.
Smoking and alcohol consumption also cause type 2 diabetes because they directly effects our
body’s metabolic system, so by preventing both of these we can counter the effect of being
diabetic in future.
The last recommended way of treating abnormal glucose level of blood is to keep a good check
and balance of glucose level by self-monitoring it on daily basis, so that one can easily and
effectively maintain his/her food’s sugar content.
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References
American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Basic. Retrieved from
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/
Diabetes Pakistan. Diabetes. Retrieved from
http://www.diabetespakistan.com/diabetes-general.html
E Medicine Health. Diabetes. Retrieved from
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/diabetes/article_em.htm#Diabetes%20Overview
Medicine Net. Diabetes Mellitus. Retrieved from
http://www.medicinenet.com/diabetes_mellitus/article.htm#glance
PubMed Health. (Aug 2011) Diabetes. Retrieved from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002194/
Rich. (2006). Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Genetics of Diabetes and Its
Complications. Retrieved from http://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/17/2/353.long#cited-by
The Nation. Who Rank Pakistan 7th on diabetes prevalence list. Retrieved from
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-englishonline/Regional/Karachi/15-Nov-2008/WHO-ranks-Pakistan-7th-on-diabetes-prevalencelist
The Ohio State University Medical Center. Statistics about Diabetes. Retrieved from
http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/patientcare/healthcare_services/diabetes_endocrine/about_di
abetes/statistics_about_diabetes/Pages/index.aspx