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What is Diabetes?
How Can I Know If I Have Diabetes?
How Can I know If I Am At Risk For Diabetes?
What the signs and symtoms of Diabetes?
What are the complications of diabetes?
How can Diabetes be treated?
Can Diabetes be prevented?
How Can I Get More Information?
What Is Diabetes?
- Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States
- Diabetes is a group of diseases characterised by a lack of the hormone
insulin, which resultsin abnormally high levels of glucoses sugar in
the blood
- Diabetes may be the result of conditions such as genetic syndromes,
chemicals, drugs, infections, viruses, or other illnesses.
- Diabetes is a chronic and incurable disease (with the exception of
gestational diabetes or diabetes that develops during pregnancy).
- With proper medical care, clinical therapies, diet, hygiene, and exercise,
symptoms and complications can be successfully treated and managed.
- Diabetes is a serious disease, which, if not controlled, can lead
to death.
- Diabetes is often associated with long-term complications that can
affect every system and part of the body.
- Diabetes can contribute to problems with the eye and blindness, heart
disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputation, and nerve damage.
- Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our
bodies to use for energy.
- The pancreas is an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone
called insulin to help glucose or sugar get into the cells of our bodies.
- When you have diabetes, your body either doesn't make enough insulin
or can't use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugars
to build up in your blood.
How Can I Know If I Have Diabetes?
See your doctor for a blood test
How Can I Know If I Am At Risk
For Diabetes?
Type 1 Diabetes was previously called insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus (IDDM) or juvenile-onset diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes may account
for 5% to 10% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. Appears in youth or
people under 40 years old.
Risk factors are less well defined for Type 1 Diabetes.
Risk factors for Type 1 Diabetes an autoimmune or development of antibodies
, genetic, and environmental factors are involved in the development of
this type of diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes was previously called non-insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus (NIDDM) or begins in adulthood. Type 2 Diabetes may account for
about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.
Risk Factors For Type 2 Diabetes Include:
- older age
- obesity or over weight
- family history of diabetes
- prior history of gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy)
- physical inactivity
- race/ethnicity - African American
What Are The Symptoms Of
Diabetes?
People who think they might have diabetes must visit a physician for
diagnosis and treatment. People with diabetes might have SOME or
NONE of the following symptoms:
- Frequent urination
- Excessive thirst
- Unexplained weight loss
- Extreme hunger
- Sudden vision changes
- Tingling or numbness in hands or feet
- Feeling very tired much of the time
- Very dry skin
- Sores that are slow to heal
- More infections than usual
- Sugar in the urine
What Are Complications of
Diabetes?
- Heart disease is caused by atherosclerosis, excess build-up of plaque
on the inner wall of a large blood vessel, which restricts the flow
of blood.
- Heart disease accounts for about 25 percent of deaths among patients
with onset of diabetes before 20 years of age.
- Heart disease and stroke is 2-4 times more common in persons with
diabetes.
- Kidney disease.
- Eye problems & blindness.
- Diabetic Coma.
- Eye problems & blindness.
How Can Diabetes Be Treated?
The goal of treatment is to keeping blood glucose or blood sugar to near
normal levels at all times. Treatment for diabetes must be individualized.
Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes: (here there is lack of insulin being
made by the pancreas) makes type 1 diabetes particularly difficult to
control because of the lack of insulin.
Treatment requires a strict and carefully calculated diet, planned physical
activity, home blood glucose or blood sugar testing several times a day,
and multiple daily insulin injections.
Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes: Treatment typically includes diet
control, exercise, home blood glucose or blood sugar testing, and in some
cases, oral medication and/or insulin. About 40% of people with type 2
diabetes require insulin injections.
Can Diabetes Be Prevented?
A number of studies have shown that regular physical activity can greatly
reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes also appears to be associated with obesity. Researchers are
making progress in identifying the exact genetics and "triggers"
that causes some people to develop type 1 diabetes, but prevention, as
well as a cure, remains unknown at this time.
Where Can I Get More Information?
See your doctor first.
The following organizations may help in your search for more information
on diabetes:
Department of Veterans Affairs Internet - http://www.va.gov/health/diabetes/
Health Resources and Services Administration - Internet http://www.hrsa.dhhs.gov
Indian Health Service Diabetes Program
5300 Homestead Road NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110
505/248-4182
Internet http://www.ihs.gov/IHSMAIN.html
National Diabetes Education Program
Internet http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/diabetes/ndep/facts.htm
Download the "My Guide to Sugar Diabetes" (PDF). DOWNLOAD
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