Is Diabetes Mellitus a Judgment or a lifestyle?

In recent years, we have been hearing the word diabetes mellitus more and more often. What is the disease and can it be avoided or prevented from developing?

Diabetes mellitus is a disease in which blood sugar levels rise or glucose is spoken of more correctly.

In the 2nd century A.D., the Roman physician Areteus of Capodoca gave the first description of the disease. The word diabetes is a Greek word ‘diabetes’ means. The concept of "sugar" was formed from the idea of ancient doctors that diabetes sugar passes through the body in the same form and is excreted with urine, and therefore the urine of such patients is sweet to the taste. For many centuries, doctors could not treat diabetes mellitus. Only after the discovery of insulin in 1921, and in the 40s of the 20th century, tablet sugar-reducing drugs underwent radical changes in the management of this disease.

Diabetes mellitus is not a single disease. There are several types of diabetes. The vast majority of diabetes cases are type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. What is the difference between these two types of diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease caused by the near total death of b-cells of the pancreas and, as a consequence, an absolute deficit of insulin. The number of patients with this type of diabetes is about 10% of all patients with diabetes mellitus. This disease is usually present in young children as well. Since the body itself does not produce insulin, the use of insulin injections is indicated for the treatment of this condition.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus accounts for 90% of all diabetes mellitus cases. It is characterized by impaired secretion and insulin action. This type of diabetes mellitus usually occurs at the age of over 40 years. Type 2 diabetes is treated with a diet, physical activity and tablet sugar-reducing drugs, sometimes in combination with insulin.

Unfortunately, the number of people with diabetes is increasing every year. Every 15 years, the number of patients is predicted to double, mainly due to type 2 diabetes mellitus. In Russia, about 3 million people suffer from diabetes mellitus, and in Tambov Oblast, more than 27,000 people suffer from diabetes mellitus.

Are there factors that predispose to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus?

Yes, they do, and they need to be known in order to be diagnosed in time. These risk factors include: age over 40 years old, lack of regular exercise, burdened heredity (presence of diabetes in relatives), high blood sugar during pregnancy, obesity, arterial hypertension, impaired lipid metabolism, polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Symptoms of diabetes include: fatigue, fatigue, thirst, frequent urination, itching of the crotch, weight loss. Not all patients have these symptoms. In the case of type 2 diabetes mellitus, these symptoms may be absent for several years of the disease and complications of diabetes mellitus are detected at the time of diagnosis. Therefore, in the presence of risk factors for the timely diagnosis of the disease it is necessary to control the level of glucose in the blood 1p per year.

What is the danger of diabetes other than thirst and increased urination? In the case of untimely diagnosis, lack of treatment, failure to comply with dietary recommendations may develop complications of diabetes mellitus: vision loss, lower limb vascular lesions with the development of gangrene, kidney damage, heart and brain damage with the development of myocardial infarction, acute cerebral circulation disorders.

Modern medicine currently has a large arsenal of drugs for the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 1 and 2. However, the success of diabetes therapy depends not only on the doctor, but also on 90% of the patient, the desire to know about his disease, willingness to change their habits and participate in the treatment process.

There are several rules for patients with diabetes that allow them to maintain their health and lead an active lifestyle for many years: to maintain a normal level of glucose in the blood (blood sugar content in the fastener is no more than 5.5 mmol/l), to carry out regular monitoring of glycemia, carefully follow the doctor's recommendations.

In order to delay the development of diabetes mellitus in people with risk factors as much as possible, it is necessary to exclude those factors that can be corrected. To successfully resolve this issue it is recommended to consult an endocrinologist or district therapist of St. Petersburg State Budget Institution "City Polyclinic No. 72".

In addition to the primary prevention of diabetes mellitus in the risk group, the issues of secondary prevention, namely the prevention of complications of diabetes mellitus, are becoming more and more acute. In this regard, it is necessary to actively train patients under the program "School of diabetes patients".

In conclusion, I would like to say that diabetes mellitus is not a sentence, but a way of life!