Diabetes Type Two
Diabetes a Group of Diseases

Diabetes Type Two

When a person eats sugars and starches, the body changes them rapidly into a sugar called glucose.

Glucose is the main source of body energy. Your liver produces some glucose and you get the rest through the above digestion process. It is absorbed from the intestine and is metabolized and used immediately where it is needed by all cells in the body via glucose transportation, and the rest is stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen for future requirement.

In diabetes, the mechanism that controls the amount of glucose in the blood breaks down. The blood glucose level rises to dangerously high levels as a result, causing symptoms and damage to the body.

Glucose is transported by a signal produced by insulin. After transportation insulin triggers its correct dispersion.

Diabetes Type Two
Insulin is a hormone (part of the endocrine system) produced by beta cells (islets of Langerhans) in the pancreas. It manages how much glucose the liver produces and helps glucose to be taken up by the cells where it is used as energy. Insulin acts as a key to unlock the cells so that blood sugar can be stored in them. High blood sugar levels can be related to not enough keys (insulin), or an inefficient lock (cell entry point), or both.

Diabetes Type Two
Diabetes is actually a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both, resulting in either hypo- (abnormally low blood sugar) or hyperglycaemia (an elevated concentration of glucose in the blood).

The primary types of diabetes include type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes Type Two
Type 1 diabetes develops when the body’s immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the hormone insulin that regulates blood glucose. It occurs most usually from childhood or teen years.

Type 2 diabetes consists of a resistance to insulin produced by the body. Obesity is a heavy contributor to its development, as is type 1 diabetes and high (imbalanced) cholesterol levels.

Insulin resistance occurs when the body fails to respond effectively to the insulin already produced by the pancreatic beta cells.

Type 2 diabetes usually affects adults following a trigger. This could be another illness or the effects of obesity, for example.

Other forms of diabetes…

Gestational diabetes is a form of glucose intolerance diagnosed during pregnancy where a woman is not able to increase their secretion of insulin. Gestational diabetes requires treatment to normalize maternal blood glucose levels to avoid complications in the fetus. Genetics and obesity are major contributing factors.

Gestational diabetes is usually asymptomatic and not necessarily life threatening to the mother. This condition is associated with an increase in neonatal morbidity, neonatal hypoglycaemia and jaundice.

It is characterized by excessive hunger, thirst, and the need to urinate, it is a mild condition and often goes unnoticed, but it is important to treat because elevatedblood sugar levels can damage the fetus.

It has been found to respond well, and even to resolve, with a combination of diet, exercise and appropriate supplementation where necessary.

Diabetes Type Two
Secondary diabetes is named due to it forming as a result of other particular conditions, such as pancreatic disease, hormone disturbances, drug overuse and malnutrition.

Impaired glucose tolerance is a condition that shows blood glucose levels that are intermediate between normal and clearly abnormal.

Diabetes Type Two
Diabetes is often under diagnosed, being more likely to be recorded as one of the major complications of circulatory problems and heart disease (arthersclerosis, stroke, or high blood pressure), kidney disease, retinopathy (damage to the retina), blindness, nerve damage and even foot ulcers (heart attacks and strokes are more common in diabetics due to the increased risk of clogging of blood vessels). Diabetic skin lesions are also a possible long term effect.

Rather the opposite is actually true….

In all forms of diabetes, high levels of blood glucose increase the risk of the above, what are now known to be diabetes-related complications (rather than diseases in their own right).

Diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is a damage to the retina of the eye that can eventually lead to blindness. It often has no early warning signs. In general however, a person is likely to notice blurred vision, which in some cases will get worse during the day.

As new blood vessels form at the back of the eye as a part of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) process they can bleed and further blur vision. In extreme cases a person may only be able to tell light from dark in that eye.

These conditions are also multi-generating, i.e. it has been proven that high blood pressure and high levels of blood glucose can themselves increase the risk of a person with diabetes progressing to other severe, potentially fatal complications such as kidney failure...

People with diabetes have an increased mortality rate due to all these consequent complications.

Left untreated (or undiagnosed), or mismanaged diabetes can easily lead to any or all of these long-term damages and major organ failures.

Diabetes Type Two
Further Type 1 and type 2 complications Other related immunity depletion.

Complications can be acute and chronic. People with diabetes can suffer both high and low blood sugar episodes. Acute conditions resulting from one or either form of diabetes include:

Hypoglycaemia (or dangerously low blood sugar)Hyperglycaemia (or dangerously high blood sugar).

These are both life-threatening and need to be managed and maintained.

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