What is Diabetes?

What is Diabetes? ::

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder, characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (sugar) due to defective insulin secretion or defective insulin action, or both. This excessive sugar passes out of the body through urine. Hence, it is also called “sweet urine”. Insulin is a hormone that converts sugar, starches, and other food into energy.

It can lead to several complications like kidney failure, and nerve damage over a period of time. This results from damage to small vessels leading to microvascular disease. It can also accelerate atherosclerosis (the hardening and narrowing of the arteries i.e. blood vessels), resulting in stroke, coronary heart disease, and other large blood vessel diseases which leads to macrovascular disease.

According to the W.H.O estimation, it was found that there were 171 million people with diabetes in the year 2000 and predicted an increase in the number to 366 million globally by 2030. Till date the American Diabetes Association reported that there are 23.6 million children and adults in the United States who have diabetes and 57 million Americans who have pre-diabetes.

Classification

Classification ::

1. Type-1 Diabetes mellitus
   
   
2. Type-2 Diabetes mellitus
   
   
3. Gestational diabetes mellitus 
   
   
4. other specific types
   
   
   

1. Type-1 Diabetes mellitus: It is also called as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or juvenile onset diabetes. This occurs when the pancreatic beta cells (the cells that produce insulin) are damaged leading to improper insulin secretion. Mostly children and young adults are affected, although disease onset can affect at any age.

2. Type 2 diabetes mellitus: It is also called as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) or adult-onset diabetes. This disorder is caused due to insulin resistance, where the cells do not use insulin properly leading to insufficient glucose metabolism. If the need of insulin rises in the body, the pancreas gradually loses its ability to produce insulin. This type is associated with elderly, obesity, family history of diabetes, history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism, physical inactivity, and race/ethnicity.

3. Gestational diabetes: It is a form of glucose intolerance observed during pregnancy commonly occurring among obese women and women with a family history of diabetes.

Risk factors

Risk Factors ::

The causes of diabetes mellitus are not exactly known, but there are some factors that can put an individual at risk or develop diabetes. These risk factors depend upon the type of diabetes that one has.

Risk factors for type 1 diabetes:

• Autoimmune,
• Genetic, or
• Environmental

Risk factors for type 2 diabetes:

• A history of being overweight
• A sedentary lifestyle
• Unhealthy dietary habits, alcohol, smoking
• Aging- the risk increases as one gets older  
• Family history of diabetes (Hereditary or genetic)
• A history of gestational diabetes, women who had gestational diabetes during pregnancy or gave birth to a child over 4.5 kg (9 lbs)
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol

A common risk factor for type 1 and type 2 diabetes is genetic (family history of diabetes).

Pre-diabetes

Pre-diabetes :: A condition in which individuals have higher levels of blood glucose but not as high as in diabetes is called as pre diabetes. They don't often have symptoms. People with pre-diabetics have impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or sometimes have both. The fasting plasma glucose test (FPG) and the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) are the two types of tests used to determine pre-diabetes. If the blood glucose level is found to be abnormal following the fasting plasma glucose test (FPG), then it is called as impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and if blood glucose level is abnormal following the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), the condition is termed as impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). A person is said to be pre-diabetic if the fasting blood glucose level is between 100 and 125 mg/dl and a person is found to be diabetic if the blood glucose level rises to 126 mg/dl or above. People who are diagnosed with pre-diabetes should be checked for type 2 diabetes for every 1-2 years. FPGT OGTT