Health Fitness

Diabetes mellitus (high blood sugar): highlights of types and symptoms

Diabetes mellitus occurs when you have a problem with your pancreas, which is the organ that controls blood glucose. Either you stop making insulin or you don’t make enough insulin to meet your body’s needs. This insulin deficiency results in poor absorption of glucose by your body’s cells, which use it for energy production, as well as by your liver, which stores it. The end result of this malabsorption is high blood sugar or glucose.

There are two main forms of diabetes mellitus. They are type I diabetes (also called juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent diabetes) and type II diabetes (also known as maturity-onset or insulin-independent diabetes).

In type I diabetes (insulin dependent); which usually affects young people, the pancreas produces little or no insulin. The defect is caused by damage to insulin-producing cells. Your body, unable to use glucose due to a lack of insulin, is forced to obtain energy from fat. This can lead to a dangerous condition called a diabetic coma.

In type II diabetes (independent of insulin); Which commonly strikes people in their forties, the cells that produce insulin are still working, but the amount of insulin is insufficient for your body’s needs. Patients with this type of disorder tend to eat too much and are overweight. Its excessive intake causes excess glucose in the blood and the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to cope with it. Genetics and hereditary factors are key players in this type. In one third of the cases, there is always a family member or members who suffer from the disorder. Another factor is your age, because the function of your pancreas is reduced as part of the normal aging process.

All forms of diabetes cause the same main symptoms. You urinate much more than usual, sometimes as often as about an hour, during the day and at night. You may notice white spots, consisting of dry splashes of glucose-filled urine, on your underwear or shoes. Microorganisms are attracted to sugary urine and these can cause various complications, such as bladder infections. Excessive fluid loss can make you perpetually thirsty, and drinking sweetened beverages increases the amount of urine and worsens thirst. Your cells don’t get enough glucose, so you feel extremely tired, weak, and listless; so much so that you may not be able to get up in the morning.

If you are diabetic or the parent of a diabetic child, you may notice excessive weight loss. This is explained by the inability of the body to use glucose as an energy source and instead, your body begins to burn fat and muscle. Other symptoms that you may experience include tingling in the hands and feet, decreased immunity (small abscesses and burning when urinating due to an infection may be the first symptoms of diabetes), blurred vision due to excess glucose in the fluid in the blood. eye and loss of erection in men or absence of menstruation in women.

Symptoms of type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes usually develop quickly, within weeks or months. Those of the Type II (insulin-independent) form often do not appear until many years after the actual onset of the disease. Sometimes the disorder is caught by chance in a routine medical exam, before symptoms appear.

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