(By Solomon Mahoi, [Pseudonym, "Abck Obba"])
April 16, 2024
Are you a diabetic and are scared of what might become of your general health but don't know what to do? Or, has your doctor just diagnosed you with diabetes and you find yourself worried as to how to treat or manage the condition? If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, then here is good news for you.
The good news is that in this piece, you would get to find out what diabetes really is, including its most-basic types as well as their mode of treatment. And speaking of its most-basic types, we will therefore be covering "Prediabetes," "Type-1 Diabetes," and "Type-2 Diabetes." But first we will have to define what diabetes is.
What is diabetes, and what are the most-basic types?
Diabetes mellitus is the official name for the disease, and it is a group of disorders that causes individuals to have higher than usual sugar (or glucose) level in their blood, as the sugar (or glucose) we consume daily comes from either the protein, carbohydrates, or fatty food products we eat and drink, or a combination of them, all which ends up in the liver because the liver is where these substances are stored for nutritional purposes, which then gets distributed to other areas of the body.
The most-basic types of the disease are "prediabetes," "type-1 diabetes," and "type-2 diabetes."
(1) Prediabetes is when a person's blood sugar is higher than normal, but is not high enough to be diagnosed as type-2 diabetes. This pretty much means that the person's A1C blood test result falls between 5.7% and 6.4%.
(2) Type-1 diabetes also known as "juvenile diabetes," is usually an autoimmune disorder that occurs mostly in children, but it is observed that a small amount of these children do not always develop the disease perhaps until they are in their 30s, 40s, and sometimes 50s.
Type-1 diabetes occurs when a person's immune system wars and destroys insulin-making cells in the pancreas.
(3) Type-2 diabetes is also called "adult-onset," and this is because as mentioned previously when explaining type-1 diabetes (or juvenile diabetes), those children who may have type-1 diabetes do not necessarily experience the symptom of type-1 diabetes not until when they are clocking their 30s, 40s, and perhaps 50s. And at this point between age 30 to 50, they now produce their own insulin but their bodies do not use the insulin very well, which is where taking other medications comes in, to aid in reducing a person's blood sugar.
Treating (or Managing) Prediabetes, Type-1 Diabetes, and Type-2 Diabetes.
As you may well be aware by now, the causes of diabetes are no more of a secret than they are of our poor eating habits as well as our individualized genetic make up which can be traced from our family's history as well as our general surrounding. With this in mind, let's now delve into how diabetes is managed or treated.
Prediabetes is reversible through exercise and diet-watch, including consuming water regularly which aids in washing-off sugar secretion from the pancreas. So, if you have a parent or sibling with type-2 diabetes, or you are 45 years or older, or you are overweight, or have had gestational diabetes, then it's about time you start getting exercise-active, along with changing your diet (or be watchful of the portion size you consume per meal-intake).
For type-1 diabetes, the main treatment is insulin, and must be administered daily. It is also important to know that insulins come in the form of injection, pump, and inhaler.
For type-2 diabetes, some individuals undergoing this stage of the disease will need to also be taking insulin. For others, however, oral medication like Metformin is prescribed under a licenses practitioner's guidance, but what you must also be aware of is that Metformin is sold under brand names such as Glucophage, Glumetza, Fortamet, and Riomet, in case you get confused with the generic and brand names of the medication. But they all delay the breakdown of the carbohydrates you eat (which turns into sugar), including reducing the level of glucose (or sugar) your liver produces.
Now that you know where you stand on the diabetes health saga, let's now summarize to see what and what you remember.
Summary:
Diabetes' official name is Diabetes mellitus, and it's a group of disorders that causes individuals to have higher than normal sugar levels in their blood. Its most-basic types are prediabetes, type-1 diabetes, and type-2 diabetes. The cause of the disease range from factors associated with our genetic predisposition, to factors associated with our eating habits. And the ways to manage or treat the disease are through insulin administration, diet-watch, as well as being exercise-active.
Metformin is also prescribed to reduce sugar levels in the blood, but it is sold under brand names such as Glucophage, Glumetza, Fortamet, and Riomet, in case you get confused with the generic and brand names of the Metformin medication.
Conclusion:
Diabetes is as confusing as its breakdowns are, in that while the prediabetes stage of the disease is reversible through diet-watch and active exercise, there is no guarantee that a person who did not experience the prediabetes stage of the disease would not experience the type-1 stage of the disease at a later age, especially when symptoms of the disease at the prediabetes stage do not necessarily surface early except when the individuals are clocking their 30s, 40s, and perhaps 50s.
Another confusing side of the disease's breakdown is the understanding of the treatment of the disease, in that while the insulin, its types, and its dosages pose their own confusing ways on how to identify and administer insulin, the Metformin on the other hand pose the confusion of identifying it by the various brand names in which it is marketed in.
Perhaps what patients of the disease need to focus on when breakdowns of the disease appear too confusing to understand, is to see the disease as it being manageable through common or familiar means, which are diet-watch (or portion-size control), regular engagement in exercise activities (at least three times a week), and frequent consumption of water (which helps is washing off sugar secretions from the pancreas). By having oneself disciplined on these three common ways in managing the disease, the chances for the effects of the disease to extend to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, nerve damage, kidney disease, vision loss and skin infections, will be slim, including chances for miscarriage, stillbirth and birth defects, for pregnant women.
So, keep the faith. And while you do, don't forget to also keep on with your regimen or treatment.
~ Reference source: www.healthcentral.com