Diabetes:
Most people fear this word because it is connected to injections daily. Diabetes is very
common but has no clear cut signs of its presence. Diabetes is a condition when your
blood sugar is high even when you have not eaten.
Usually, if your blood sugar is more than 125 mg on an empty stomach, when you have
not eaten for 5-8 hours , you may be diabetic.
Diabetes sometimes is called Type I or Type II. Type I is usually seen in young children
or young adults when they have no insulin of their own. This kind of Diabetes needs
Insulin injection. It happens because of damage to the Pancreas from infection or other
causes. Diabetes Type II is seen in older people, also called Maturity Onset Diabetes.
Here the person used to have enough insulin but with age the effect of insulin became
weak or the actual amount of insulin production became less. In such people medications
can make the insulin more effective or increase the production of insulin.
So what is the problem in Diabetes?
Insulin is a hormone produced by the Pancreas, which is an organ located just behind the
Stomach. When we eat food, there is a message sent to the Pancreas to pump insulin into
the blood. The Insulin goes to each and every cell in our body and helps open the gate for
sugar to enter the cell. Once the sugar goes into the cell, it can be used to provide energy
to the cell. The cell is the basic unit of our body. The cell in the brain is different from the
cell of the muscle. Each part of our body has a different cell depending on the location
but the basic requirement is energy from sugar. Insulin does this for each cell. In people
who are diabetic, initially there may be a lot of insulin in the blood but it’s not doing the
job properly so the Pancreas keeps producing more and more insulin until it gets
exhausted. When the pancreas can produce no more insulin, it becomes Diabetes Type I
or more recently it is called Insulin dependant Diabetes. That means now your own body
cannot produce Insulin and you have to inject it from the outside.
So how do you know you are Diabetic? Who should look out for it?
Diabetes comes on very slowly. There are no obvious signs or symptoms initially. Those
people whose parents are Diabetic should be very vigilant. Those who are overweight
also are very likely to get diabetic. Smokers and Alcohol- consuming individuals are also
more likely to get it. Many people think that by not eating sugar at all from a young age
would prevent diabetes. This is not so. All precautions of food really are required only
after becoming a diabetic. Diet does not prevent the onset of diabetes but overeating can
make you overweight and then more insulin is required for more body surface area and
that may make your requirements more and make you diabetic.
Common symptoms of having diabetes may be fatigue, excessive thirst, excessive
hunger, excessive urination, dizziness, or the earliest sign may be low sugars instead of
high sugars. Some people feel extremely tremulous, sweaty 2 hrs after breakfast but feel
fine if they never ate breakfast. This happens because in a diabetic the response to food
can be excessive insulin not in proportion to the amount of food intake and results in very
low sugar causing all the symptoms of low sugar. At such times all the tests for diabetes
may come back normal.
There is a special test to check your average sugar for the last three months and it helps
find out if you are truly diabetic. It is called HbA1C. Very often your sugars may be
slightly high on routine blood tests. Don’t let time pass by thinking it is borderline. You
are either diabetic or not. If you are diabetic you must see your doctor and follow all the
instructions. Neglecting slightly high sugars for a long time can be very dangerous
because ultimately diabetes does affect your whole body in different ways. It takes 10 -15
years for it to get to all the major organs of the body. In the brain it can give a stroke, in
the heart , kidney, and circulation, it can cause fatal disease, in the nerves it causes
damage which is felt initially by tingling, numbness pain and finally no sensation. In the
eyes it is well known to cause poor vision, Cataract, and loss of vision. Sometimes your
eye doctor may pick up diabetes but it’s a later stage. Diabetes does not punish you
immediately but after a certain number of years you cannot reverse all the bad effects.
That is why control of Diabetes is important as early as possible and as well as possible.
This article was purely an introduction to give basic information for the non medical
people and obviously your doctor is the best person to take care of your diabetes. Your
Primary Care Doctor can do this for you and a specialist of Diabetes is not always
required unless your doctor cannot control your sugar well or obviously you have a hard
time controlling your diet and blood sugar. For further questions please consult your
Primary Care Doctor.
Hemant Painter MD
7232 W Sand Lake Rd, Ste 205
Orlando,FL 32819