Causes and Effect of Diabetes—-Maintaining Good Health

The liver and the pancreas taken from WebMD website.

What Causes Type 2 Diabetes?

According to WebMD When you’re healthy, the pancreas (an organ behind the stomach) releases insulin to help your body store and use sugar from the food you eat. Diabetes happens when one or more of the following occurs:

• Your pancreas doesn’t make any insulin.
• Your pancreas makes very little insulin.
• Your body doesn’t respond like it should to insulin

Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes

Glucose (blood sugar) is vital to our health as it is an important source of energy for the cells that make up our body muscles, tissues and it is also our brain main source of fuel.

In order for the body to make sugar the food we eat is broken down in a form called glucose. This glucose is what provides the energy the body needs.

The blood and blood vessels are the means by which the sugar is transported from the stomach or to the liver where sugar is “manufactured” then to the cells where it is used or where it is stored as fat.

Sugar cannot go into the cells by itself, it needs insulin that is produced by the pancreas and then released into the blood, which serves as the helper, that lets sugar into the cells for use as energy.

Without insulin sugar cannot get into the cells to be used as energy and this causes the sugar level in the blood to rise and too much sugar in the blood is what causes diabetes, high blood sugar)

What are the types of Diabetes

There are 2 types of diabetes Type 1 and type 2, type 1 usually affect persons under 30 years old and is caused by a complete lack of insulin in their bodies. Although the exact cause has not been identified, it is clear that the cells which make insulin are destroyed by the body’s own immune system.

People with type 2 diabetes can still make insulin, but their cells have some degree of insulin resistance

Each part of the body has its own job and it is the constant production of hormones that leads to changes both bodily and mentally. The task of generating enzymes and hormones which are required for breaking food down lies with Pancreas.

This important part of the body is responsible for producing enough insulin in the body so that the sugar level remains intact. The imbalance in the production of insulin can lead to diabetes. Once the problem starts developing, it can be only controlled by taking a suitable diet and by avoiding eating sweets.

Pancreas and Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes usually develops as an autoimmune disorder, the presence of Type 1 diabetes signals the body’s inappropriate reaction to its own tissue and starts considering it as a foreign object

Basically, it is the Islet cells in the pancreas whose main aim is to produce insulin are seen as an enemy to the body. This then causes the body, to develop antibodies that fight enemy cells and destroy their ability to create insulin.

Type 1 diabetes is best treated with a dosage of insulin, that is injected in the veins for it to get absorbed into the capillaries where it can then start doing its function of breaking down food glucose.

Insulin should not be consumed in the form of a pill because the available juices in the stomach have the tendency to extinguish the insulin before it can properly function.

Pancreas and Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes, is when the transformation process of the carbohydrates into sugar (energy) gets slowed down. This slowing down of the transformation process raises the risk of getting heart disease, damage to organ, and various other serious complications. It is all about building up of resistance to insulin, which is a necessary part of controlling blood sugar level.

The symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes tends to appear after a long time you might be in a pre-diabetic state for a long time. With Type 2 Diabetes there is the tendency for the production of insulin to be reduced from the beta cells in the pancreas, which would lead to taking medication to enhance the production or in severe cases injecting insulin.

Type 2 Diabetes is usually hereditary. Some symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes are, dryness in the mouth, large appetite, frequent urination, sudden weight loss or gain, headaches and even blurred vision Type 2 Diabetes can become troublesome and even life-threatening. So, although Type 2 Diabetes is incurable with care medication.exercise and diet this disease can be managed. The patient should, therefore, consult the doctor on time and get treatment to keep it under control at all times.

The underlying cause of diabetes varies by type. But, no matter what type of diabetes you have, it can lead to excess sugar in your blood. Too much sugar in your blood can lead to serious health problems.

Long-term complications of Diabetes Mellitus:

Some many complications of diabetes, includes coronary artery disease, cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease are caused by damage to large vessels in the body.

High glucose levels can lead to chronic inflammation in the body, including the walls of the arteries in the blood. This chronic inflammation leads to atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of a plaque with a fibrous cap on the walls of the arteries.

This buildup of plaque narrows the arteries which cause a decrease in blood flow in the arteries. In addition, these plaques can cause further damage by rupture and lead to the formation of a blood clot which blocks off blood flow. If this happens in the brain or the heart, it causes a stroke or a heart attack.

Being a diabetic may also cause damage to the smallest vessels in the body, leading to multiple long-term microvascular complications. This damage and destroys the cells in the blood vessels and this leads to decreased blood flow and tissue death.

Diabetes not managed or controlled can cause retinopathy (damage to the retina in the eyes, leading to blindness), nephropathy (damage to the kidneys resulting in kidney failure), neuropathy (damage to your nerves, which can cause numbness or tingling), and gastroparesis (dysfunction of your digestive system causing chronic vomiting and abdominal pain). All of these symptoms are caused by glucose-induced damage to blood vessels.

Diabetes has a negative effect on the body’s immune system. High glucose levels increase the activity of immune cells. These cells eventually become exhausted and desensitized, thus decreasing their effectiveness against invading pathogens. People with poorly controlled diabetics are more prone to severe skin infections and other infections like pneumonia or urinary tract infections.

Chronic diabetes conditions include type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Prediabetes can be reversed sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as diabetes 100-125 gestational diabetes, also can be reversed pregnancy but may resolve after the baby is delivered.

Managing and controlling your diabetes:( copied from the Cleveland Clinic website)

While there is no cure for diabetes t can be treated and controlled. The goals of managing diabetes are to:

• Keeping the blood glucose levels as near to normal as possible by balancing food intake with medication and activity.
• Maintain your blood cholesterol and triglyceride (lipid) levels as near the normal ranges as possible by decreasing the total amount of fat to 30% or less of your total daily calories, and by reducing saturated fat and cholesterol.
• Control your blood pressure. (Your blood pressure should not go over 130/80.)
• Decrease or possibly prevent the development of diabetes-related health problems.https://www.facebook.com/silversneakers/videos/255169528458204/?t=5

You hold the keys to managing your diabetes by:

• Planning what you eat and following a balanced meal plan.
• Exercising regularly.
• Taking medication, if prescribed, and closely following the guidelines on how and when to take it.
• Monitoring your blood glucose and blood pressure levels at home.
• Keeping your appointments with your health care providers and having laboratory tests completed as ordered by your doctor.

What you do at home every day affects your blood glucose more than what your doctor can do every few months during your check-up.

I have posted a link for some easy exercises from silver sneakers try to do these at least 3 times per week.

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