What is diabetes?
What is diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a metabolic disease that causes high blood sugar. With diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t effectively use the insulin it does make. Insulin is a hormone that is released from the pancreas to facilitate the storage of glucose as glycogen and triglyceride in the body. Diabetes can occur when the pancreas produces very little or no insulin, or when the body does not respond appropriately to insulin. Persistent high blood sugar and long-term metabolic disturbances can cause many acute/chronic complications. If acute complications are not dealt with immediately, it will cause death and various sequelae. Chronic complications have a chance to disrupt the function of body organs, especially our eyes, kidneys, Nerve Damage and Cognitive Issues, etc. The most common types of diabetes are type 1 and type 2.
Type 1 (insulin-dependent diabetes):
Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which your immune system destroys insulin-making cells in your pancreas. Lack of insulin can cause too much sugar in the blood. Everyone with type 1 diabetes needs to use insulin shots to control their blood sugar.
Most people think that diabetes develops over middle age. However, the targets of type 1 diabetes are children and young people. Type 1 diabetes is the most common endocrine disease in young children and adolescents. The main cause of type 1 diabetes is generally to be related to genetics, autoimmune system, and environmental factors. The initial symptoms include frequent urination, fatigue, increased appetite, abnormal thirst, and weight loss.
Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent diabetes):
Type 2 diabetes is a lifelong disease that keeps your body from using insulin the way it should. People with type 2 diabetes have insulin resistance. So, the function of insulin secretion will also continue to decline, which leading to diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, usually onset after the age of 40.
However, type 2 diabetes can also occur at any age. In addition to genetic factors, the cause is also closely related to lifestyle habits. The symptoms of type 2 diabetes include thirst, blurry vision, wounds that don't heal, etc. The high-risk groups of those with family genetics, obesity, and people who have had pregnancy diabetes also need special attention.
Although the age of onset and causes of type 1 and type 2 diabetes are different, both have insufficient insulin. The patient is difficult to detect insulin, so it needs to be discovered by the following tests.
1. Fasting plasma glucose test (FPG)
2. Glycosylated hemoglobin test (HbA1c)
What is diabetes?