There are three basic types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes. All of these are similar in that they are metabolism disorders involving the pancreas, insulin regulation, and glucose. However, the causes for these types of diabetes are different and therefore they require somewhat different approaches when it comes to treatment.

Type 1 Diabetes

Of all the types of diabetes, type 1 is the most common in children. In fact it is most often diagnosed in children or young adults but it can strike at any age. Type 1 is considered an autoimmune disease because the body destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Therefore, the pancreas is unable to supply enough insulin to live. A person with type 1 must take insulin every day.

Thankfully, type 1 only accounts for up to ten percent of the types of diabetes cases in the U.S. today. The destruction of the insulin producing cells can happen slowly over time or this condition can develop quite suddenly for reasons that medical scientist do not fully understand. The symptoms of type 1 include increased urination, increased thirst, weight loss, constant hunger, extreme fatigue, blurry vision, and even person with diabetes coma.

Type 2 Diabetes

Of all types of diabetes, type 2 is the most common. Type 2 is linked to obesity, genetics, and physical inactivity. It is estimated that nearly 80 percent of people who have this type of diabetes are overweight. Due to the growing obesity epidemic among children today, type 2 is now being diagnosed among children and teens when it was once primarily seen with older ages.

With type 2, the pancreas produces a sufficient amount of insulin but for one reason or another, the body cannot utilize it. This is called insulin resistance. If this condition is allowed to linger for years, the pancreas begins to produce less and less insulin and the amount of glucose in the blood increases which results in person with diabetes symptoms.

Among the types of diabetes, type 2 has symptoms that develop the slowest. It is a chronic gradual development. The symptoms include frequent urination, frequent hunger, frequent thirst, blurred vision and wounds that are slow to heal. It is even possible to have type 2 and not know it. Treatment for this type of diabetes includes diet, exercise, and medications if necessary including insulin.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes in pregnant women. Gestational diabetes strikes up to eight percent of pregnancies in the U.S. today. It usually goes away after the woman gives birth but indicates she is at a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Like other types of diabetes, gestational diabetes is a condition of a shortage of insulin. This could be cause by pregnancy hormones that interfere with its production or utilization. Women who have gestational diabetes may not experience symptoms but if left unchecked, increased glucose levels could cause complications with the pregnancy, delivery, or harm the unborn baby.

These three main types of diabetes require medical attention and proper treatment to prevent serious complications from arising. Diabetes that is untreated could result in blindness, limb amputation, and even death. Diabetes is no longer a disease of old people. It can strike anyone at any age. Thankfully there are many effective forms of treatment available today that make it easier for those with diabetes to lead normal productive lives.

Diabetes mellitus or type 2 diabetes is a disease that is characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. While it is often initially managed by increasing exercise and dietary modification, medications and external insulin injection are typically needed as the disease progresses. There are an estimated 28 million people in the U.S with diabetes 90% of whom are type 2. With prevalence rates doubling between 1990 and 2005, Centre of Disease Control and Prevention has characterized the increase as an epidemic.

Traditionally considered a disease of adults, type 2 diabetes is increasingly diagnosed in children in parallel to rising obesity rates due to alterations in dietary patterns as well as in life styles during childhood. This is more to do with the high calorie fast food culture, children & teenagers being glued for hours and hours to computers, television and video games.

Unlike type 1 diabetes, there is very little tendency toward ketoacidosis in type 2 diabetes. Ketoacidosis is a type of metabolic acidosis which is caused by high concentrations of ketone bodies, formed by the breakdown of fatty acids and the deamination of amino acids. The main reason to worry about the Diabetes Type 2 is the secondary complications that bis associated with high glucose levels in the blood. Prolonged high glucose levels ion blood can lead to severe and irreparable damage to kidneys, heart, eyes and limbs.

In case of Type 2 Diabetes there are hardly any visible symptoms. In many cases one gets to know that he/she has diabetes only after being screened for smoother ailments or for routine medical insurance check up.

Early symptoms may be nothing more than chronic fatigue, generalized weakness and malaise (feeling of unease). Excessive urine production, excessive thirst and increased fluid intake are also some of the symptoms. Blurred vision, unexplained weight loss, lethargy, itching of external genitalia and excessive bowel movements are also some of the other common symptoms.

Diabetic patients at greater risk for common infections

Most of us who are diabetic are well aware of the several really serious complications and risks that we might face in the longer term, possibilities that I hate to even think about, such as the increased risk of heart disease, vision loss, kidney failure. And there are others, but they are not inevitable and the worse can possibly be avoided if we can get our blood glucose levels under control.

Perhaps less serious but uncomfortable nevertheless

Diabetes is also associated with it a number of less serious but uncomfortable ailments that can easily be ignored and neglected and go untreated, at least for a while. And some of these occur more often in the case of the diabetic whose blood sugars are out of control. Being out of control describes the situation where the glucose levels in the blood are consistently above the accepted levels, not a good situation in any event.

In an earlier article, Diabetes and Dental Hygiene, reference was made to gum diseases in the mouth, gingivitis, periodontal disease, and thrush, a form of yeast infection also called candidiasis, usually the result of the high glucose levels that provides a ready source of nutrients for the many families of bacteria or fungi that can live in our bodies but are normally kept in check by our own disease fighting immune systems. But when the immune system is weakened it allows the bacteria to take over and a result is the infection.

Balinitis, another male diabetic yeast infection

There is another yeast infection, called Balinitis, to bring to your attention. Affecting male diabetics, not well known among doctors it seems, if my own personal experience is anything to go by. When I first described my irksome condition vividly to the doctor treating me for diabetes, he seemed unsure and then decided to send me to a urologist. After inspecting me, the urologist also seemed baffled and, from his comments was, I think, concerned it might be cancer related and so he cauterized it - what an experience that was! Can you imagine it?

Cauterization is the process of burning or searing an affected area by burning with a device, I think with an electric current in my case. I won’t elaborate here, but balanitis affects the male genital area, that reference will be enough for you to recognize whether you have it and I will leave you to look it up and get the details yourself.

Anyway, showing no improvement at the time of a follow up a week or two after the cauterization, the urologist pondered a while and then decided to send me to a dermatologist, fortunately practicing in the same building, who saw me the same day. When the dermatologist made his inspection he too was puzzled, did not recognize the condition, but finally after carefully peering at the appropriate area said, “I think it must be a yeast infection” and at that gave a prescription for an ointment that did help to a degree but the condition never totally disappeared.

A year or two later, when the condition flared up again I had by then used up all the ointment and had moved to a new town with a new doctor. Also I had identified the ailment myself when reading the diabetes literature. As soon as I asked my new doctor for ointment to treat my complaint known as balinitis, he immediately knew the condition and prescribed an ointment, an anti-fungal I believe, called. Miconazole Nitrate (MCL). That ointment has been fairly effective, the condition needs to be carefully watched, but it is much better.

In spite of my own experience with doctors, I read elsewhere that the condition should be recognized immediately and that treatment can clear it up in 3 to 5 days.

Caution

Balanitis does sometimes affect non-diabetics and there are some more serious forms of the disease. There is significantly more important information available than my brief and simple description given here and I urge anyone who is concerned to check more deeply into the condition and locate the full details relating to balanitis, or any other genital ailment for that matter,

Raising awareness

My purpose with this article is to raise awareness of such ailments so that if they should occur a doctor may be consulted without delay, minimizing the effects. And to again emphasize that diabetic patients are at greater risk for several such common infections, especially if blood glucose levels are elevated beyond normal for too long a period of time, allowing creation of an environment that enhances the growth of harmful organisms such as fungi, bacteria and viruses.

Do you know what type 2 diabetes is? If no, then just dig in.

Type 2 diabetes is a condition that causes the blood sugar levels to rise and fall beyond the medically accepted levels. The result is that blood which is responsible for bringing energy and food to the cells start to destroy the effectiveness of different vital body organs.

Many individuals suffering from type 2 diabetes ask whether it is a reversible disease; so the answer is yes still there are following 6 mistakes which must be avoided.

1. It is a fact that most of us have genetic predisposition towards developing this chronic condition. However it is equally true that every one with this genetic predisposition end with this chronic health issue. The reason is that not all of us choose to live a healthier lifestyle.
2. It has been noted that many people who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes do not have a family history but as they follow unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits they are caught up by the disease. So we must make this thing clear in our heads that underlying and the most important cause of diabetes are unhealthy lifestyle habits and not the genetic predisposition.
3. Our grand parents also used to follow unhealthy eating habits but still they were not caught by type 2 diabetes. The reason is though they used to eat lot of fats, sugars and oils but at the same time they spend hours in walking and they spend an active life. Nowadays we spend hours sitting on chair, watching television and surfing internet.
4. Once you are diagnosed with diabetes; it does not mean that it is the end of life. If you will leave it untreated it may result in chronic health related complications. Uncontrolled blood sugar levels results in Neuropathy, Retinopathy and Nephropathy.
5. This is the most common mistake to not undergo a routine annual check up. Type 2 diabetes is generally diagnosed during routine annual health checkups. It is very rare that diabetes suddenly reaches at the stage where it becomes irreversible within one year. Earlier diagnosis of diabetes helps in timely treatment.
6. Many people who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes do not follow the instructions of their health care professionals. They just think these complications can never happen to them. Some continue to drink, smoke or do not exercise.

The result of the above mentioned mistakes is that most people that could have lived a healthier, happier and productive life end with chronic medical conditions as they do not choose to live a healthier life.

So what’s your choice?

Two recent news articles announced discovery of 13 gene variants that make us susceptible to developing type-2 diabetes later in life. The point of this article is that you don’t have to be a victim of genetic variants; you may be more susceptible to some disease of aging, but you don’t have to accept it as your fate. The variants discussed are called Single Nucleotide Pair variants or SNPs. SNPs are the simplest variation that a gene can have; only one letter in the code is changed in a place that changes the molecule produced from the gene. It is like the word “confiscate” being changed to the word “codfilcate”. That letter sequence change has two SNPs in the code changed, but each involves only a single letter change, as opposed to 2 or more adjacent letters changed.

In these studies, thirteen new SNPs have been found in genes relating to glucose metabolism, blood sugar levels, insulin levels and insulin resistance. If you have one or more of these variants, they may make you more susceptible to developing the problems associated with metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes, but they don’t necessarily insure that you will. There are choices that minimize the probability, and these choices involve what you eat, when you eat and whether you move your body enough to keep your metabolic hardware working properly. The health science industry is hoping to benefit much with this genetic information - primarily by making drugs that will treat the symptoms of this now epidemic “disease”, which will allow us to continue eating the wrong foods and watching TV, while buying drugs-for-life to abate the symptoms.

The real cause of this epidemic is how we eat, and how we move our muscles, which strongly affects our gene expression. Our eating and exercise patterns dramatically control which of our genes are turned on and which are turned off, and are far more important than this catalog of SNPs in determining our health and fitness as we age. This is critical to understand. The most profound of recent science relates to just how dominant the influence of food and exercise is on gene expression and health or the lack thereof. If you eat primarily sugar-laden foods with altered fats or proteins, you turn on the genes required for building large fat stores and ramping up inflammation; genes that slow your metabolism, slow down thyroid and adrenal gland function, inflame your arteries, destroy your joints and shrink your brain.

The primary health-killing food culprits are:

• Refined and hydrogenated fats and oils in place of natural oils as found in seeds, nuts, fruits (such as olive and avocado) and grains.
• Manufactured food products that are loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup, altered oils, “flavorings”, MSG, chemical preservatives, and have natural vitamins, oils and minerals removed and replaced by synthetic pseudo-nutrients.
• The rampant use of soft drinks, diet or sugar-filled, instead of real water for liquid intake.
• Grain-finished meats and farmed fish with much lower levels of omega-3 fats than they would have if naturally feeding on their wild diet.
• Eating belly-stretching amounts of food at mealtime - every excess above needed calories promotes the expression of genes required to store calories as fat and leads to reduced ability to burn fat for energy.

When we eat also had a powerful influence on gene expression. The primary impacts of eating too frequently are elevated baseline insulin level and interruption of leptin signaling. This is a recent discovery, and not well understood. We can control our appetite by snacking between meals, so that we don’t feel compelled to gorge at meal time. The popular wisdom is that eating healthy (real) foods like nuts or fruit or vegetables (not potato chips and other junk) suppresses binging and overeating patterns. Most people who use this strategy do lose significant weight and girth, and keep it off for years. What is less understood is that this pattern leads to persistently elevated leptin and insulin in the blood, and eventually drives your metabolism toward metabolic syndrome anyway. This author is a classic example: low body fat for decades, controlled by consistent exercise and eating small, frequent meals, but eventually acquiring all the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, including high fasting blood sugar, sky high cholesterol and triglycerides and the need for a quad bypass operation in 2001 at the age of 61.

The not-so-obvious reasons for this are rigorously developed and explained in Byron Richards’ book Mastering Leptin, the 3rd edition of which was published in 2009. If you really want to understand leptin, insulin, the obesity epidemic and why we get fatter as we age, this is a great book to read carefully. His solution is very simple, and it has worked very well for this writer:

• Eat 3 reasonably sized meals per day; never eat to fullness
• Eat nothing and drink only water between meals, allowing 5-6 hours for insulin to return to baseline and the liver to supply blood sugar made from stored fats
• Make Breakfast a meal with significant protein intake
• Eat nothing after dinner or before bedtime - this is the critical time for the liver to perform its detox functions and to convert stored fat to energy for repair and restoration overnight
• Reduce carbohydrate intake, get most carbs from fibrous vegetables, not starchy sources like grains and potatoes

When you put these strategies into action, energy levels rise, appetite slackens, the brain works better and the desire for excess carbohydrates goes away. For the vast majority of people, the obesity epidemic is a matter of food choices, meal size and spacing, and lack of regular physical movement. Carrying excess body fat is for most people a fast track to rapid aging and degenerative disease. Don’t wait for the medical industry to come up with another drug to fix it - we already have the tools to eliminate the problem.

Good Living - Frank