Understanding Diabetes
Diabetes is a growing epidemic that affects more than 20 million people and some 70+ are prediabetics. Our unhealthy lifestyle contributes a large part on the development of pre-diabetes and diabetes type 2. The alarming news is that it is more prevalent in children. Are we killing ourselves and our children with our poor lifestyle?
Let’s explore diabetes.
Normal values
There are two forms of diabetes, and the only one thing in common for both of them is elevated blood glucose.
They are completely two different diseases. Diabetes Type 1 (IDDM) or Juvenile Diabetes is an autoimmune disease, when the body destroys the pancreas (mostly after viral infection) and it’s unable to produce insulin (a hormone produced by pancreas). The only way the person can survive is by administering Insulin in form of injections throughout his lifetime. Otherwise death is imminent (hyperglycemic coma, death).
Type 2 or Adult onset DM (NIDDM) has slow, progressive course. The person affected is many times not even aware of having the disease unless some serious symptoms appear. The great news is that this form of the disease is reversible (according to some researchers, even 90% of the cases). What happens here, the body produces Insulin, but the receptors on the cells are not recognizing it (we call this insulin- resistance). Lifestyle modification, which leads to weight loss, can reverse the process.
Most frequent symptoms: thirst, fatigue, irritability, extreme hunger, prone to infection, prolonged wound healing, etc.