Diabetes

Diabetes means increase sugar level in blood. Diabetes is a life-long disease. It is marked by high levels of sugar in the blood. The increase level of blood sugar or high blood level of glucose can cause many problem.

Following are main Symptoms of Diabetes:

• Patient suffer from frequent urination

• feel excessive thirst

• hunger

• Feeling weak ,tired i.e. fatigue

• some patient experience weight loss

• blurry vision

• Headaches

• Feeling Dry mouth

• Rarely Loss of consciousness

• When the blood sugar is higher than 240 mg/dL

• During acute illness like pneumonia, heart attack, or stroke

• When nausea or vomiting occur

• During pregnancy
   

Diabetes mainly can be caused by too little insulin .It means a hormone produced by the pancreas to control blood sugar, resistance to insulin, or both.

There are three major types of diabetes:

• This type of diabetes usually occurred in childhood. The body makes little or no insulin, and daily injections of insulin are needed to sustain life. This is also called as type 1 diabetes.
  
  Symptoms of type 1 diabetes are Increased thirst, Increased urination, Weight loss in spite of increased appetite, Fatigue, Nausea, Vomiting.
  In case of patients with type 1 diabetes usually develop symptoms for  a short period of time.
   

• This type of  diabetes is most common than type 1 and makes up most of all cases of diabetes.  Type 2 diabetes usually occurs in adulthood. This is due to  pancreas does not make enough insulin to keep blood glucose levels normal, often because the body does not respond well to the insulin. Many people with type 2 diabetes do not know they have suffered from diabetes. It can occurred mainly due to increasing obesity, and failure to exercise.
  
  Symptoms of type 2 diabetes are Itching of the skin usually around vaginal or groin area, recent weight gain, dark skin changes of the neck,  tingling of the hands and feet, decreased vision.
   

• This type of diabetes occurred in pregnancy. It is also called as Gestational diabetes The main reason for this is high blood glucose that develops at any time during pregnancy in a woman who does not have diabetes.

There are many risk factors for diabetes, including:

1. A parent, brother, or sister with diabetes

2. Obesity

3. Age greater than 45 years

4. Some ethnic groups in other countries i.e  African Americans, Native Americans, Asians.

5. High blood pressure

6. High blood cholesterol level

7. Not getting enough exercise

Diabetes in pregnancy:

Diabetes Mellitus in pregnancy  cause many problems to mother, fetus and child. It is cause in Women which have menstrual problems and difficulties in conceiving, sometime may cause certain diabetic complications to progress in mother. Maternal diabetes is also dangerous to fetus and also increased risk for fetal loss and major congenital malformations.

Diabetes in pregnancy differentiate into pre-gestational and gestational diabetes; gestational diabetes is defined as diabetes that is observed during pregnancy. This effect is occurred in late second and third trimester. Gestational diabetes resolves after delivery, but may recur in subsequent pregnancies and the lifetime risk for developing Type-2 diabetes is increased.

Indications for detection of diabetes in pregnant women :

• Family history of Diabetes ,someone from family suffer from diabetes
• Maternal age more than 25 years
• Maternal obesity , it is due to excess increase of weight in pregnancy 
• History of unexplained prenatal loss
• History of large baby
• Glucose in urine sample
• History of congenitally malformation infant

Due to diabetes women suffer from spontaneous abortion and congenital malformations in infants of diabetic mothers, diabetes care and education must begin before conception. After diabetic patient achieves stable sugar control then contraception can be discounted and plan for pregnancy.

Management during pregnancy:

• Home blood glucose monitoring
• Diet control/Folate supplementation
• Regular exercise
• Fetal monitoring by ultrasound scan
• Accurate insulin regimen
• Quit smoking/alcohol

Diet for diabetic patient:

Patient or person should be careful about what to eat? To learn how much fat, protein, and carbohydrates you need in your diet. Take doctor's or dietician advice about eating habits.

1. People with type 1 diabetes should eat at about the same times each day and try to be consistent with the types of food they choose. This helps to prevent blood sugars from becoming extremely high or low.
    
2. The prevalence of Type-2 diabetes mellitus is higher in women, partly related to obesity. The Type-2 diabetes typically doubles the coronary heart disease risk in men and triples the risk in women.

Test of diabetes:

A urine test alone does not diagnose diabetes. Instead of this test blood glucose tests are used to diagnose diabetes.

• Fasting blood glucose level  i.e. diabetes is diagnosed if higher than 126 mg/dL. If Levels between 100 and 126 mg/dl are considered to be risk factors for type 2 diabetes and its complications.
   
• This test is used mainly for type 2 diabetes .Test is called as Oral glucose tolerance test -- diabetes is diagnosed if glucose level is higher than 200 mg/dL after 2 hours
   
• Random (non-fasting) blood glucose level -- diabetes is suspected if higher than 200 mg/dL and accompanied by the classic symptoms of increased thirst, urination, and fatigue.
   
• This test is used in type 1 diabetes. The ketone test is done using a urine sample. High levels of blood ketones may result in a serious condition ,it is called ketoacidosis.

If you have diabetes, you can regularly check your blood sugar levels at home. There are a number of devices available, and they use only a drop of blood. When you start to test glucose in home ,so elf-monitoring tells you how well diet, medication, and exercise are working together to control your diabetes and also prevent complications.

You have knowledge about following aspects How to recognize and treat low blood sugar and high blood sugar, how to test and record blood glucose, How to take insulin or oral medication, What to eat and when

if you learn the basics of diabetes, then you know that how the disease can cause long-term health problems and the best ways to prevent these problems.

There is no cure for diabetes. Treatment involves medicines, diet, and exercise to control blood sugar and prevent symptoms and complications.