What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a serious lifelong condition where blood glucose level go high in your body and it is a serious complex condition that can affect our entire body. It requires daily care to avoid any complications and if it develops, diabetes can have a significant impact on our living style/habits and can reduce life expectancy. As there is currently no cure for diabetes, you can still live a happy life by just learning about the condition and how effectively it can be managed.
Diabetes can strike anyone, at any phase of life. First, we need to understand the role of insulin in our body. When someone eats, their body turns food into sugars or glucose. And that point of time, our pancreas is supposed to release insulin. Insulin serves as a “key” to open our cells which allow the glucose to enter and then we use that glucose for energy.
There are majorly 2 types of Diabetes:
-Type 1
-Type 2
Though, both being into different conditions, one is as serious as Other. There are some other rarer types of diabetes too, will talk about that in the next article in detail.
Gestational diabetes:
There’s one more form of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy – which is Gestational diabetes. In most of the cases, women will no longer have diabetes after the baby is born. However, there are some women, who continue to have high blood glucose levels after delivery and that is diagnosed
when higher than normal blood glucose levels first appear during pregnancy. It’s highly recommended to all pregnant women should be tested for gestational diabetes at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy. And for women who have risk factors for gestational diabetes due to some inherent issue or other histories, should be tested earlier in their pregnancy.
Risk of developing Gestational diabetes in Women include:
- The family history of type 2 diabetes or a first-degree relative who has had gestational diabetes
- Are aged 40 years or over
- Are above the healthy weight range
- Have had gestational diabetes during previous pregnancies
- Have previously given birth to a large baby (weighing more than 4.5kg)
- Have previously had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
- Gaining weight so rapidly during the first half phase of pregnancy
- Women who are taking some types of steroid medications or anti-psychotic
What to do after being diagnosed with Gestational diabetes?
It’s quite upsetting for being diagnosed with Gestational diabetes for many women. But still, it should be communicated to them that most women with gestational diabetes have a healthy pregnancy, go for normal delivery and a healthy baby. The treatment is-
- A healthy Eating plans
- Regular physical activity and
- Monitoring and maintaining blood glucose levels in the target range while you are pregnant
- Read more about managing gestational diabetes
It would be a team effort involving the woman, her family and health professionals in managing diabetes. May need support from some of the health professionals that may form part of a diabetes healthcare team include obstetricians, endocrinologists, accredited practicing dietitians, credentialled diabetes educators, accredited exercise physiologists, GPs and midwives.
Causes of Diabetes
The reason of Diabetes is not defined, as causes of diabetes vary with each individual and the type. There are no such common diabetes causes that fit every type of diabetes.
For example, the causes of type 1 diabetes vary considerably from the causes of gestational diabetes. likewise, the causes of type 2 diabetes are different from the causes of type 1 diabetes.
In Type 1 diabetes, a patient can’t make any insulin at all and in Type 2 diabetes, it’s a quite different- the insulin which body make either can’t work effectively or body unable to produce enough of it.
In both types of diabetes, as glucose can’t get into your cells, it begins to build up in your blood. And too much glucose in the blood causes a lot of different problems.
But, we all need some glucose – that’s what gives us our energy. We get glucose when our bodies break down the carbohydrates that we consume through eatables or drinks and that glucose is released into our blood.
We also need a hormone called insulin. It’s made by our pancreas and its insulin that allows the glucose in our blood to enter our cells and fuel our bodies.
A non-diabetic body pancreas senses, when glucose has entered the bloodstream and releases the right amount of insulin, so the glucose can get into the cells. But, if someone caught with diabetes, this system doesn’t work properly, which create an imbalance of insulin in the body.
Diabetes causes vary, depending on your:
-Genetic makeup
-Family history
-Ethnicity
-Health and environmental factors
What are the symptoms of Diabetes?
- Increased hunger
- Increased thirst and urination
- Blurred vision
- Fatigue
- Sores that do not heal
- Unexplained weight loss
- Tingling or Numbness in the feet or hands
Some people do not come to know so easily that they caught with Diabetes until they have diabetes-related health problems, such as blurred vision or heart trouble.
Diabetes can be curable when diagnosed on time. However, if it’s left untreated or avoided, can lead to huge complications that include:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Kidney damage and
- Nerve damage.
How Does a Diabetology Treatment can help on that?
The Diabetic Association of Sai Sanjeevini Hospitals strives to infuse hope and peace in even the most severe diabetic cases. Diabetes or high blood sugar is not at all that fatal by itself. The consequential damages caused to nerves, legs, foot, heart, eyes, kidneys and pancreas is what makes diabetes lethal.
Facilities Available:
- Consultation by a team of the best diabetologists and endocrinologists of the city
- ECG Resting
- Affordable, beneficial and high-quality laboratory facilities for all diabetes-related investigations
- Nerve Conduction velocity studies for diabetic neuropathy and autonomic neuropathy
- Equipment to assess Insulin resistance and Serum Insulin assays useful for asymptomatic blood relatives of diabetic patients.
- Doppler: Vascular Doppler
ABOUT THE HOSPITAL:
Sai Sanjeevini Multi Speciality Hospitals a unit of Singapanga Healthcare Pvt. Ltd has been providing health services to the people in need for the last 14 years. We provide a range of treatments with cutting-edge technology for diagnostic and treatment purposes, with care and compassion. We believe that medicine and personal care are a great combination to help people recover faster and better. We also have a wide array of specialties including pulmonology, neurology, gynecology and are pioneers among all Orthopedic Hospital in Hyderabad.