Introduction to and prevention of Diabetes

Glucose is an essential requirement of the body since it’s used to provide an instant energy source. It is mainly obtained through consumption of carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are then converted to glucose through digestion.

Glucose is also obtained from the liver, where it’s usually stored. Storage of glucose in the liver is a form of ensuring that the body has a constant supply of glucose even when you have not eaten.

However, this glucose is only needed in a useful amount in the body. When it is in excess, a person is then diagnosed with Diabetes. This is harmful to the body and can cause serious complications. It can damage the kidney, nerves, and eyes. It can also cause stroke and heart disease.

Insulin is a hormone produced by beta cells in the pancreas. Its purpose is to allow glucose to enter into body cells so that it can be used to produce energy which is very important for normal body functioning. Insulin also controls the release of glucose from the liver into the blood, depending on the glucose levels in the body.

Having glucose levels higher than the normal amount is usually either because your pancreas does not produce insulin, or the insulin is not enough to help the glucose present in the body to enter into the body cells. It can also be due to the insulin not functioning properly. This brings about different types of Diabetes.

Types of Diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes

This type of Diabetes is caused by the body not producing insulin. This is due to the destruction of Beta cells in the pancreas.

It mostly appears in childhood or adolescent ages, but it can also appear in adult age. Unlike type 2 diabetes, this type of diabetes cannot be prevented. However, it is not common and can be accounted for only 10% of Diabetes cases.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the produced insulin is not enough to move glucose to the body cells, or when the insulin is not efficient in helping move the glucose.

This type of diabetes is commonly diagnosed in adults but can also be found in young people. It is also more likely to occur in people that are overweight or physically inactive. Being overweight makes the body resistant to insulin or makes the pancreas sluggish in the production of insulin.

This leads to high amounts of glucose in the blood.

Gestational diabetes

This is a type of diabetes that is only found in pregnant women. Pregnant women can have a lot of glucose in their body. This is because they may not be able to produce the amount of insulin required by their body. During pregnancy, insulin is usually required approximately three times more than without pregnancy.

This type of diabetes is not permanent and usually disappears after pregnancy. However, it increases the chances of getting type 2 diabetes in the future. Women who have had it are therefore advised to have annual blood sugar tests carried out.

The signs of getting diabetes can be so mild that you can’t notice them. This is especially in cases of type 2 diabetes.

Some common symptoms of diabetes include:

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  Hunger and fatigue

  
  


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  Peeing more often

  
  


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  Excessive thirst

  
  


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  Lack of energy

  
  


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  Weight loss

  
  


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  Skin problems

  
  

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  Blurred vision

  
  

If you happen to have some of these symptoms, you may need to get tested.

Causes of Type 1 diabetes

Autoimmune destruction is the cause of the destruction of beta cells that are responsible for the production of insulin in the pancreas. This happens when the immune system of your body mistakes the beta cells in your pancreas as harmful.

It, therefore, attacks them and destroys them such that they can’t continue producing insulin.

Causes of type 2 diabetes

The major cause of type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance. This is where your body does utilize the insulin produced as well as it should. Since insulin is used to move glucose from the bloodstream to the cells for energy production, glucose builds up in the blood. This condition has two major causes; Genetics and lifestyle.

Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 can’t be directly inherited. However, having it in your family increases the chances of suffering from the condition.

Lifestyle plays a key role in getting type 2 diabetes.

Some of the lifestyles that affect the development of this type of diabetes include:

Apart from insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes can also be caused by the pancreas producing insulin amounts that are not enough.

This will also lead to build-up of sugar in the blood. Research is still ongoing to determine the factors that cause this situation.

The treatment of diabetes depends on the type of diabetes and its severity, Type 2 diabetes is treated with exercises, weight reduction, and an appropriate diet.

If the above regime is followed strictly, the body can easily prevent itself from progressing further to Type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is very dangerous for the body, there are certain serious risk factors associated with the disease. These include the lowering of the bodies ability to repair muscle tissue and cartilage in the body, along with a lowering of the ability to heal bone damage / breaks. Keeping your blood sugars completely under control, and eliminating sugar as much as possible from the diet is required to minimize these symptoms to a manageable degree.

Further issues with type 1 diabetes are the risk of developing nerve damage due to poor circulation in the body, mainly around extremities such as the hands and feet. Keeping these areas warm, and also ensuring they retain proper circulation is vital to prevent nerve and tissue damage.

Often if not managed correctly, the bodies extremities can develop gangrene, in which the fingers or toes effectively can not maintain circulation and begin to die, causing the toes to require amputation.

While controlling blood sugar and limiting excessive sugar intake is essential for people with all types of diabetes, so too is maintaining proper exercise. These 3 key areas provide the most important way to prevent the risk of gangrene; there is also hosiery available to protect the feet, known as diabetics socks, which can assist to promote further circulation to the feet and toes.

Type 2 diabetes can often be reversed within the first 2 years by eliminating sugar from the diet as much as possible. Starvation diets of 600 – 700 calories a day have shown to reverse type 2 diabetes in around 40% of people over the course of 8 weeks when followed up also with a weight loss focused diet for a further 12 months. Type 2 diabetes begins due to an increase of fat in the pancreas, which can often be reversed, or at least improved, by strict diet changes to promote fat loss.

Often if sugar is kept in the diet it is not possible to trigger the fat metabolism response required, hence a switch to either a 600 – 700 calories a day diet consisting of low sugars, or a sugar free diet, while additionally trimming extra fat trimming off most meats can usually result in enough fat loss on the pancreas to reduce or eliminate the severity of type 2 diabetes symptoms and blood sugar problems.

In order to reduce the chances of being diagnosed with diabetes, you should consider the following tips;

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  Getting more physical activity and losing extra weight

  
  


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  Regular exercises help you lose weight, lower blood sugar level and increase sensitivity to insulin. Reducing your body weight will also reduce the risk of being diagnosed with diabetes.

  
  


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  Consuming more fiber and whole grains

  
  

This will help you improve your body’s blood sugar control and also lower your risk of getting a heart disease

Have a proper diet plan

This will make sure your body gets all its required nutrients and in healthy proportions. Eating healthy is always a major factor in preventing most diseases.

It is always advisable to see your doctor once a year to carry out blood sugar tests. This will help you stay healthy and free from diabetes if detected early, most cases of diabetes can be reversed in part or whole via diet change.

Introduction to and prevention of Diabetes

A friendly introduction can transform a patient"s encounter

The #hellomynameis campaign has manufactured a lot more than 26m Twitter impressions in 10 months. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters

As a medical professional I have turn into a keen observer of the healthcare I get considering that my diagnosis of cancer almost 3 many years ago. In August last 12 months, I became unwell with an infection following some routine surgery to replace the stents that drain my kidneys. This necessitated a journey to the emergency department and a subsequent quick admission to hospital.

One particular of the starkest observations I created for the duration of this particular episode was the absence of introductions from the staff delivering my care. It was not just the occasional slip but something that appeared to permeate through the expert groups and assistance workers. When someone did offer you a pleasant introduction, nevertheless, it made all the variation. It began a relationship, helped to place me at ease relieving my anxieties and humanised what can in many circumstances be an really dehumanising encounter. When introductions have been missing, I was left questioning who the particular person was and feeling that I was just yet another physique with a illness in a hospital bed.

At health-related college, we have been taught on day a single of our clinical education to introduce ourselves to a patient prior to proceeding with anything. There were even marks in our exams for completing this process. I will not consider, even so, that we genuinely target on why a friendly introduction is so crucial and not just a typical courtesy.

As a patient, you are in a vulnerable place. The healthcare crew understands so considerably personal information about you, yet you typically know nothing about them. This results in a very one-sided power imbalance. A straightforward introduction can help to redress this imbalance. I also feel it is the very first rung on the ladder to offering compassionate care by establishing a human connection and building believe in with a individual.

I discussed the absence of introductions with my husband throughout visiting time a single evening. As an alternative of pursuing a complaint, which in my experience hardly ever leads to a tangible improvement in the NHS, we made a decision to do anything constructive to remind and encourage healthcare personnel about the value of introductions.

The end result was the social media campaign I launched utilizing the hashtag #hellomynameis. I began to tweet frequently about the subject and invited healthcare personnel to pledge their assistance for the campaign on my website. The thought was to reinforce the valuable nature of introductions and to request men and women during the care sector to pledge their dedication to introducing themselves appropriately to each and every patient they meet. We even made a brand to give the campaign a visual identity.

It soon became clear that my encounter was not a special 1, with scores of other individuals and carers taking the possibility to inform me about their dislike of absent introductions, and what a large affect a welcoming introduction can make to the self-confidence they had in their healthcare team.

The campaign seemed to strike a chord and soon I was inundated with messages of support from people across well being and social care interested in selling the idea in their personal workplaces. The entire spectrum of folks from all corners of the NHS was represented, from chief executives and health-related directors to healthcare assistants, student nurses and porters.

The notion became the target of several trust board meetings lanyards and badges with the emblem have been made reminders popped up in clinics, on personal computer screensavers and believe in intranets chief executives started to site about the campaign, and it was a frequent subject of conversation at numerous healthcare conferences. It has produced much more than 26m Twitter impressions in ten months, with much more than 18,000 person tweets and virtually 22,000 site visitors to my blogpost.

The ingenuity of this idea is its simplicity. It expenses nothing at all and will take only seconds, but it improves patient knowledge. It is the initial stage to finding what issues to that individual and to placing their concerns 1st. I am proud of the care I offer and want my individuals to know my name. As a patient, I think that it is the small items like this that make the largest big difference.

My prognosis is predicted to be only months but I am established to use some of this precious remaining time to drive the campaign more until it grows its very own wings, so I will carry on to accept invitations to speak and create right up until I am as well sick to do so. I would enjoy to feel one particular of my legacies will be an NHS that recognises the value of treating individuals as individuals, and one particular exactly where every single single member of staff understands about #hellomynameis and is inspired to get the campaign to heart.

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A friendly introduction can transform a patient"s encounter