Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Complications Of Diabetes And Symptoms

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a defect in the body’s ability to convert glucose to energy. It is caused due to insufficient production of glucose by the pancreas. In diabetes patients, the production of glucose is impaired.

What are the symptoms of Diabetes?

Patients with Type-1 diabetes usually develop symptoms over a short period of time, and the condition is often diagnosed in an emergency setting.

Symptoms of type 1 diabetes:

  • Increased thirst
  • Fatigue
  • Nausea
  • Increased urination
  • Weight loss in spite of increased appetite
  • Vomiting

However, because Type-2 diabetes develops slowly, some people with high blood sugar experience no symptoms at all.

Symptoms of type 2 diabetes:

  • Increased thirst
  • Impotence in men
  • Increased appetite
  • Increased urination
  • Blurred vision
  • Fatigue
  • Slow-healing infections

How to diagnose diabetes?

The diagnosis of diabetes is made by a simple blood test measuring blood glucose level. Usually blood glucose level tests are repeated on a subsequent day to confirm the diagnosis. Your health care team may also request that you have a glucose tolerance test. If two hours after taking the glucose drink your glucose level is 200 or above, you will be diagnosed as having diabetes.

How can I control diabetes?

  • Gather all the information about diabetes, its symptoms and causes
  • Check your blood glucose level regularly
  • If find any symptom of diabetes, visit your health care team for diagnosis of diabetes
  • Ask your health care team about how to check blood glucose level at home
  • Stop smoking
  • Exercise daily
  • Follow a healthy meal plan
  • Check your vision at regular intervals, If found blurred visit your health care team
  • Check your feet regularly for checking the occurrence of diabetes
  • If you are diabetic, monitor you diabetes regularly
  • Follow instructions of health care team strictly
  • Avoid sweet ingredients, use sugar free food

Can diabetes be cured?

As yet, there is no treatment for either type of diabetes, although there are many ways of keeping diabetes in control. Studies have shown that good control of blood glucose (blood sugar) is the key to avoid diabetic complications later.

What are the treatment options to cure diabetes?

Diabetes is incurable. The only option is to prevent ourselves from diabetes or to keep diabetes under control.

Is diabetes a hereditary disease?

You are at higher risk of Type 2 diabetes if you have a parent, brother or sister with diabetes.

Complications of Diabetes

If you have diabetes, you are much more likely to have a risk of stroke, heart disease, or a heart attack. In fact, 2 out of 3 people with diabetes die from stroke or heart disease. There are three conditions that make people with diabetes vulnerable to foot problems. These are vascular disease and foot deformities. About 30 percent of patients with Type 1 diabetes and 10 to 40 percent of those with Type 2 diabetes eventually will suffer from kidney failure. Diabetes also may cause damage to nerves in your body.

Fundamentals Of Diabetes Control And Diagnosis

When a person is diagnosed with diabetes one of the first things that he or she learns that proper diet is fundamental to keeping your sugar levels under control. Seeing to it that you maintain a healthy, balanced diet is the most beneficial path to controlling your diabetes and staying healthy. Just because you have diabetes does not mean that meals have to be uninteresting and, despite what most believe, the diabetic can usually consume just about anything but they do need to watch portion sizes closely. The all important point that the diabetic must remember is scheduling mealtimes in a way that they eat less and at the same time daily.

Meals must include plenty of whole grain, vegetables, and fruits in place of simple sugars, starches, and fats. As a matter of fact, these dietary guidelines should be practiced by anyone who wishes to enjoy a more wholesome lifestyle, especially those wanting to slim down.

An additional dietary modification that a lot of diabetics might want to implement is calorie counting. Counting calories is particularly useful for diabetics who take medicine to maintain their optimum blood sugar level. Those new to calorie counting should seek the aid of a dietician or nutritionist to learn how to do this correctly and the compile most beneficial combination of foods for every meal.

Learning how to eat properly for diabetes control can make a diabetic feel restricted and forced to eat in a way that is not to their liking. A diabetic should consume certain foods and refrain from others, but getting used to this can be challenging. However, by using the exchange-system diet plan, meals can be more interesting. This plan allows for the substitution of one food in a certain group for another of similar nutrients from the same group. This can liven things up a bit.

The diabetic must establish a schedule that includes specific times of the day that a meal or snack will be eaten and always consuming the proper portion size with an emphasis on smaller portions and cutting back on sugar and fats. The meals should be well balanced, and include items from all of the food groups of the diabetic food pyramid. The diabetic food pyramid, as opposed to the regular pyramid, groups foods in concert based on their starch and fat content. Such as, starchy vegetables are grouped with starches versus being grouped with other vegetables.

Maintaining a healthy body and keeping blood sugar levels steady, the diabetic is required to stick with their meal plan guaranteeing that they consume a nutritionally-balanced meal. The diabetic food pyramid is an excellent guide to employ in ascertaining what food groups to eat from and in what proportion. Diabetics must as well eat more modest meals than they would usually, while guaranteeing that their caloric intake is sufficient.