DIABETES

DIABETES

1. What is diabetes ?
Normally, the food you eat is digested and converted into a form of sugar called glucose.
Your cells use glucose as source of energy. This glucose causes an increase in you blood glucose level which signals a hormone called insulin which makes the glucose level in the blood back to normal.
But in diabetics, one or two things can happen. Either you body stop making enough insulin(Type 1 ) or it forgets how to use insulin(Type 2 ).
Without insulin or lack of it, glucose isn't used by your cells and therefore glucose builds up in your blood. The body then normally gets rid of the excess glucose or sugar by excreting it in the urine.
2. How did we get Diabetes ?
Diabetes itself may or may not be inherited but a tendency to diabetes may be caused by overweight, inactive lifestyles, pregnancy and certain medicines.
Diabetes can also triggered by surgery, emotional stress or illness or even menopause.
Tendency is that if a parent has diabetes, the chance of any children developing diabetes is probably around 10-20%. The risk, however, increases if both parents have diabetes where 30-50% of the children may develop diabetes usually in the later years of life.
3. What are signs and symptoms of Diabetes ?
Diabetes may have no symptoms at all.This is usually the case for many Type 2 Diabetes.However, the typical symptoms are;

1. frequent urination
2. excessive thirst
3. increased hunger
4. rapid weight loss
5. skin infection
6. nausea and vomiting
7. slow healing of cuts and scratches
8. numbness in hands or feet
9. blurred vision
10. general weakness and fatigue

Can Diabetes be cured ?
The answer to this is no. However with good control by diet, exercise and medication, complications which are normally associated with diabetes like kidney damage, hearth diseases and even blindness may be avoided or delayed.