Diabetes
Diabetes: How Sweet It Ain’t
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, frequently abbreviated to diabetes in everyday usage, is a syndrome on the rise in many places around the globe. In the outback of Australia, the indigenous people (Australian Aborigines) are prone to the disease and in the cities of the eastern seabord white Australians are enduring the consequences of Type II diabetes in increasing numbers as they enter middle age. Perhaps even more alarmingly, as the population suffers under the onslaught of the other great epidemic of our time, overweight and obesity, Australian children are increasing the chances of their becoming Type II diabetics in middle age or earlier.
Australia is not alone in this: defined in any one of a number of ways as Western society, the Western world, the advanced, developed or wealthy nations, it is the countries populated by emigrant populations from Europe such as America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the countries which provided those populations such as England, Ireland and European continental countries, which are feeling the brunt of these twin epidemics. In Western society, diabetes is the most frequent cause of blindness in under seventies. It is the most common cause of amputation in adults, (accidents and injuries excluded). In the US, it is the main illness leading to renal dialysis.
Sweetness
Diabetes is caused by genetic predisposition and/or other factors such as overweight, which cause metabolic irregularities evidenced by abnormally high blood sugar levels, known as hyperglycemia. It is the high sugar levels which attracted the adjective mellitus, which is the Latin word for sweet and is applied because the urine of a diabetic is sweet to the taste.
BSLs
Blood sugar levels (BSLs) are normally controlled by insulin, a hormone originating in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Other hormones and chemicals also have a role. High blood sugar levels are exhibited because insulin production is insufficient or ineffective in the body. An inadequate supply of insulin leads to Type I diabetes while resistance to insulin typifies insulin resistance syndrome, Type II and gestational diabetes. Untreated, this condition results in an elevated blood sugar level, which in turn leads to elevated production of urine and related thirst. Patients also experience blurred vision and lack of energsy.
Treatment
There is no cure at present. Insulin was first produced in 1921 and has been the treatment for Type I ever since. Type II may respond to diet and exercise, medication or insulin. Moreover, many obese diabetics who undergo bariatric surgery, while shedding weight, also see their Type II symptoms abate.
Unlike many other medications, insulin is not available in a tablet or capsule to be taken orally. Insulin is usually injected subcutaneously by means of disposable syringes, insulin pumps, or insulin pens. Readers may be interested in the current research in pursuit of a cure and the developments in the production of insulin and insulin analogs, which we discuss on our page entitled Diabetes Research.
The disease and its treatments can have unwanted results, such as nerve damage, renal failure, cardiovascular disease, retinal damage and ultimately blindness, microvascular damage possibly leading to impotence and slow/poor healing of wounds which can become gangrenous. Gangrene, typically in the feet, can lead to amputation.
Effective treatment of diabetes is about control – of blood pressure, body weight, and diet to minimise the impact of possible complications.
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