Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetic Ketoacidosis

2010-06-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is a type of diabetes mellitus that makes the body cells are cannot to get glucose for energy due to low or no insulin secretion by the pancreas. And because of diabetic ketoacidosis, the body system cannot use glucose for energy and start breakdown stored fat for energy, however, this breakdown of fat produces toxic acid called ketones.

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a type of diabetes mellitus that potentially life-threatening complication in diabetic patients. Diabetic ketoacidosis often happen in diabetes type 1 patient and many diabetes type 1 cases is first diagnosed after diabetic ketoacidosis. However, under certain circumstances, diabetic ketoacidosis can also happen in diabetes type 2.

Diabetic ketoacidosis first symptom can be come from previously undiagnosed diabetes, but it may also occur in known diabetics due to a variety of causes, such as inter-current illness or poor compliance with insulin therapy.

Diabetic ketoacidosis symptoms:

Vomiting,
dehydration,
deep gasping breathing,
confusion
and occasionally coma.

Diabetic ketoacidosis usually diagnosed by blood and urine test, rarer forms of ketoacidosis by the presence of high blood sugar levels. The treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis includes intravenous fluids to correct dehydration, insulin to suppress the production of ketones bodies, treatment for any underlying causes such as infections, and close observation to prevent and identify complications.

Main Article - Diabetes type 1

Diabetes 1 Prevention

2010-05-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Diabetes 1 is a lethal type of diabetes if it left untreated, the patient is very depends on insulin. Until now, the exact cause of diabetes 1 is still unknown, but the doctors believe that there is connection with immunological origin.

There are many ways to avoid diabetes 1, such as:

Immunization

Diabetes type 1 is a form of diabetes mellitus that results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. If a biochemical mechanism can be found that prevents the immune system from attacking beta cells, it may suggested to prevent or even stop the commencement of diabetes 1.

Several doctors try to make this into reality by causing the activation state of the immune system to change from Th1 state (“attack” by killer T Cells) to Th2 state (development of new antibodies).

BCG research

Dr. Denise Faustman, has theory by giving a cheap drugs that used to treat people with Mycobacterium tuberculosis called Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), would have the same effect to people with diabetes 1. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) will stimulates TNF-α production, and it kills the white blood cells that responsible for destroying beta cells, and this prevents, or reverse diabetes 1.

TNF-α or Tumor necrosis factor-alpha, is part of the immune system that helps the immune system distinguish self from non-self tissue. People with type 1 diabetes are deficient in this substance, and with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Dr. Denise Faustman try to increase it. The trials for human have begun in 2008.

DiaPep277

DiaPep277 is a peptide fragment of a larger protein called HSP60, this substance has designed to cease the attacking beta cells, which is what diabetes 1. The product is currently being tested in people with latent autoimmune diabetes of adults (LADA).

Diamyd

Diamyd Medical also try to found a vaccine to fight diabetes 1, it called Diamyd. Injections with GAD65, an autoantigen involved in type 1 diabetes, has in clinical trials delayed the destruction of beta cells for at least 30 months, without serious adverse effects. Patients treated with the substance showed higher levels of regulatory cytokines, thought to protect the beta cells.

Main Article - Diabetes Cause

Diabetes Cause - Lifestyle

2010-05-17T04:28:00.000-07:00

Do I get Diabetes? and Why?

Many of diabetes are caused by the uncontrollable lifestyle. Even some of them doesn't realize that they have diabetes, not until they checkup. A number of lifestyle factors are known to be important to the development of type 2 diabetes.

In one study, those who had high levels of physical activity, a healthy diet, did not smoke, and consumed alcohol in moderation had an 82% lower rate of diabetes. When a normal weight was included the rate was 89% lower. In this study a healthy diet was defined as one high in fiber, with a high polyunsaturated to saturated fat ratio, and a lower mean glycemic index. Obesity has been found to contribute to approximately 55% type 2 diabetes, and decreasing consumption of saturated fats and trans fatty acids while replacing them with unsaturated fats may decrease the risk. The increased rate of childhood obesity in between the 1960s and 2000s is believed to have lead to the increase in type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents.

Environmental toxins may contribute to recent increases in the rate of type 2 diabetes. A positive correlation has been found between the concentration in the urine of bisphenol A, a constituent of some plastics, and the incidence of type 2 diabetes.

Main article - Diabetes Symptoms

Gestational Diabetes

2010-05-15T03:41:00.000-07:00

Gestational diabetes is diabetes type that occurs in women without previously diagnosed with this disease but having high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes affects 3%-10% of all pregnant women. It usually occurs at the 28th weeks or more of pregnancy. Most often, gestational diabetes goes away after the baby is born.

Gestational diabetes generally only has few symptoms and it is most commonly diagnosed by screening during pregnancy. Diagnostic tests detect inappropriately high levels of glucose in blood samples. No specific cause has been identified, but it is believed that the hormones produced during pregnancy increase a woman's resistance to insulin, resulting in impaired glucose tolerance.

Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes are at increased risk of problems typically such as your baby may have a low blood sugar level, jaundice, or your baby may weigh much more than normal. Gestational diabetes can also affect your health. For instance, if your baby is very large, you may have a more difficult delivery or you may need a cesarean section. Gestational diabetes also increases your risk of developing preeclampsia, which is a condition that can be serious if left untreated. Gestational diabetes is a treatable condition and women who have adequate control of glucose levels can effectively decrease these risks.

However, things you should concern is a women with gestational diabetes has a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (or, very rarely, latent autoimmune diabetes or Type 1) after pregnancy, while their offspring are prone to developing childhood obesity, with type 2 diabetes later in life. Most patients are treated only with diet modification and moderate exercise but some take anti-diabetic drugs, including insulin.

main article - Pre-diabetes

Pre-diabetes

2010-05-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

Pre-diabetes is a common condition that has connection with diabetes, however, the blood sugar level is high but not high enough to be considered as diabetes. Pre-diabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and of heart disease or stroke. Many people destined to develop type 2 diabetes spend many years in a state of pre-diabetes which has been termed "America's largest healthcare epidemic."

The good news is pre-diabetes can typically be reversed without insulin or medication by losing a modest amount of weight and increasing your physical activity. This weight loss can prevent, or at least delay, the onset of type 2 diabetes.

About 20% more adults are now believed to have this condition and may develop diabetes within 10 years if they do not exercise or maintain a healthy weight. And more than 15 million Americans are believed to have diabetes. About one third of diabetes adults do not know they have diabetes.
About 1 million new cases occur each year, and diabetes is the direct or indirect cause of at least 200,000 deaths each year.

The incidence of diabetes is increasing rapidly. This increase is due to many factors, but the most significant are the increasing incidence of obesity and the prevalence of sedentary lifestyles.

Pre-diabetes indicates a condition that occurs when a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

Main article - Types of Diabetes

Diabetes Treatment management

2010-05-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

Diabetes treatment may include changing patient lifestyle that may include carefully managing diet, exercising, taking oral diabetes medication, using some form of insulin, maintaining proper circulation in extremities and may be further complicated by other external factors such as stress, illness, menses, injection site scarring, and other physiological factors unique to individual patients.

However, diabetes treatment may differ due to its types:

Type 1 Diabetes treatment
For diabetes type 1, the usual treatment is with insulin replacement therapy—usually by insulin injection or insulin pump, along with attention to dietary management, typically including carbohydrate tracking, and careful monitoring of blood glucose levels using glucose meters. But if the patient condition is worsening from diabetes, a pancreas transplant can restore proper glucose regulation.
Type 2 Diabetes treatment
Type 2 diabetes is usually first treated by increasing physical activity, and eliminating saturated fat and reducing sugar and carbohydrate intake with a goal of losing weight. Testosterone replacement therapy may improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in diabetic hypogonadal men.

There is also other diabetes treatment management that in research:

Encapsulation approach
Islet cell regeneration
Stem cells
Gene therapy

Main article - Diabetes

Diabetes type 1 Treatment Management

2010-05-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

For diabetes type 1, the usual treatment is with insulin replacement therapy—usually by insulin injection or insulin pump, along with attention to dietary management, typically including carbohydrate tracking, and careful monitoring of blood glucose levels using glucose meters.

The most common insulins that use to treat diabetes type 1 nowadays are biosynthetic products produced using genetic recombination techniques; formerly, cattle or pig insulins were used, and even sometimes insulin from fish. A more recent trend of diabetes type 1 treatment, from several suppliers, is insulin analogs which are slightly modified insulins which have different onset of action times or duration of action times.

If diabetes type 1 left untreated, it is commonly leads to coma, often from diabetic ketoacidosis, which is very dangerous if untreated and can lead to death. Continuous glucose monitors have been developed and marketed which can alert diabetes patients to the presence of dangerously high or low blood sugar levels, but technical limitations have limited the impact these devices have had on clinical practice so far.

In worst diabetes cases, a pancreas transplant can restore proper glucose regulation. However, the surgery and accompanying immunosuppression required is considered by many physicians to be more dangerous than continued insulin replacement therapy, and is therefore often used only as a last resort in treating diabetes (such as when a kidney must also be transplanted, or in cases where the patient's blood glucose levels are extremely volatile). Experimental replacement of beta cells (by transplant or from stem cells) is being investigated in several research programs. Thus far, beta cell replacement has only been performed on diabetes patients over age 18, and with tantalizing successes amidst nearly universal failure.

Diabetes type 1 treatment by transplantation surgery:

Pancreas transplantation
Islet cell transplantation

Main article - Diabetes type 1 Symptoms and Signs

Diabetes Type 1 Symptoms-Signs

2010-05-10T03:41:00.000-07:00

The subsequent lack of insulin leads to increased blood and urine glucose that makes diabetes type 1 lethal if left untreated, Over time, high blood glucose can lead to serious problems with your heart, eyes, kidneys, nerves, and gums and teeth. Most people who develop diabetes type 1 are exceptionally healthy. Although the cause of type 1 diabetes is still not fully understood it is believed to be of immunological origin.

Type 1 diabetes takes only a few weeks to develop. The initial symptoms are:

Frequent urination (polyuria).
It’s all because the body tries to get rid of the excess glucose in the urine, diluting it with water
Often feels thirsty (polydipsia)
Fatigue
Deficiency of glucose in body cells and cannot being converted into energy
Increased appetite and hunger (polyphagia).
Without enough insulin to move sugar into your cells, your muscles and organs become depleted of energy. This triggers intense hunger that may persist even after you eat. Without insulin, the sugar in your food never reaches your energy-starved tissues.
Weight loss.
Despite eating more than usual to relieve hunger, you may lose weight. Without the energy sugar supplies, your muscle tissues and fat stores may simply shrink.
Feeling sick,
Blurred vision.
If your blood sugar level is too high, fluid may be pulled from your tissues — including the lenses of your eyes. This may affect your ability to focus clearly.
Infections
Such as thrush or irritation of the genitals.

Diabetes type 1 also called: Insulin-dependent diabetes, Juvenile diabetes. A blood test can show if you have diabetes. If you do, you will need to take insulin for the rest of your life.

Main Article: Diabetes Type 1

Diabetes type 2

2010-05-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Type-II Diabetes Mellitus makes insulin will not totally be missing, but the quantity will be less. The patients don’t have to depend on insulin from outside. It is treated as Non-insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM). Mostly middle aged or old people are prone to it, so it is called Adult onset Diabetes Mellitus. 80% of diabetic patients fall under this category.

In United States, 17.9 million people diagnosed with diabetes, 90% of whom are type 2. Diabetes traditionally considered a disease of adults, however, 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.

Diabetes type 2 has a very little tendency toward ketoacidosis, unlike diabetes type 1 One effect that can occur is non-ketonic hyperglycemia which also is quite dangerous, though it must be treated very differently. Complex and multi-factorial metabolic changes very often lead to damage and function impairment of many organs, most importantly the cardiovascular system in both types.

In diabetes type 2, the beta cells in these people promote insulin no doubt but it is not sufficient enough for the activities of the cells. Since it is not sufficient, they become diabetics.

Main Article: Diabetes Types

Diabetes type 1

2010-05-06T01:28:00.000-07:00

Diabetes type 1 is the promotion of insulin is totally stopped in the body. Forever these patients have to depend on insulin. The subsequent lack of insulin leads to increased blood and urine glucose. Small children are likely to get it. That's why it is also called Juvenile Diabetes Mellitus. Type 1 diabetes is fatal unless treated with insulin. Injection is the most common method of administering insulin; insulin pumps and inhaled insulin have been available at various times. Pancreas transplants have been used to treat type 1 diabetes; however, this procedure is currently still at the experimental trial stage.

People who had type 1 diabetes are looks healthy. There is a growing body of evidence that diet may play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes, through influencing gut flora, intestinal permeability, and immune function in the gut; wheat in particular has been shown to have a connection to the development of type 1 diabetes, although the relationship is poorly understood. Type 1 can be distinguished from type 2 diabetes by doing a C-peptide assay, which measures endogenous insulin production.

Type 1 diabetes treatment must be continued indefinitely in all cases. Treatment need not significantly impair normal activities, if sufficient patient training, awareness, appropriate care, discipline in testing and dosing of insulin is taken. However, treatment is burdensome for many people. Complications may be associated with both low blood sugar and high blood sugar. Low blood sugar may lead to seizures or episodes of unconsciousness and requires emergency treatment. High blood sugar may lead to increased tiredness and can also result in long term damage to other organs such as eyes and joints.

Main article - Diabetes Types

Diabetes Diagnosis

2010-05-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

Diabetes mellitus is a condition where blood glucose in high level, and later appear in urine. glucose test is the most important test to a diabetic. The fasting blood glucose level test is the most common screening diagnosis test for diabetes and pre-diabetes. It is usually ordered when someone has symptoms of diabetes or for a person having high diabetes risk factors.

These are diabetes diagnosis that often uses:

Fasting plasma glucose test (FPG)
The patient who undergo this diabetes diagnosis by not eaten anything for about 8 hours. This test is used to detect diabetes and pre-diabetes. This test usually recommended to diabetes patient who want to diagnosed, since it is easier, faster, and less expensive to perform compared to oral glucose tolerance test.
Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)
OGTT test similar with fasting plasma glucose. The patient who undergo this diabetes diagnosis by not eaten anything for about 8 hours, and 2 hours after the person drinks a glucose containing beverage. If there is any abnormal result, either test should be repeated on another day to confirm a diagnosis of diabetes. This test can be used to diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes.
Random plasma glucose test
This diabetes diagnosis also called a casual plasma glucose test. The random plasma glucose test measures plasma glucose levels at any time without fasting or no worry about what you have ate. This test, along with an assessment of symptoms, is used to diagnose diabetes but not pre-diabetes.

Main Article: Diabetes Treatment

Diabetes Symptoms

2010-05-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Diabetes Mellitus is a condition which our body cells don't properly respond to the insulin that is produced. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas which enables body cells to absorb glucose, to turn into energy.

Diabetes symptoms:

Urinating often
Getting thirst easily
Feels hungry more often

losing weight
having sores that heal slowly
having dry, itchy skin
losing the feeling in your feet or having tingling in your feet
having blurry eyesight

However, these diabetes symptoms may vary depends on what types of diabetes are or who the patient is. Often urinating, thirty easily and feels hungry are symptoms that often happen, these diabetes symptoms may develop quite rapidly (weeks or months) in type 1 diabetes, particularly in children. However, in type 2 diabetes symptoms usually develop much more slowly and may be unseen or completely absent. Type 1 diabetes may also cause a rapid yet significant weight loss (despite normal or even increased eating) and irreducible mental fatigue. All of these symptoms except weight loss can also manifest in type 2 diabetes, also in patients whose diabetes is poorly controlled, although unexplained weight loss may be experienced at the onset of the disease. Final diagnosis is made by measuring the blood glucose concentration.

Main article - Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes Types

2010-05-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

Diabetes mellitus (DM) types are many, but there are three diabetes types that has simplified:

Diabetes Mellitus type 1 (type 1 DM)
It is characterized by loss of the insulin-producing beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas leading to insulin deficiency. Type 1 diabetes can be further classified as immune-mediated or idiopathic.
Type 1 diabetes has replaced several former terms, including:

Childhood-onset diabetes
Juvenile diabetes
Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)

Diabetes Mellitus type 2 (type 2 DM)
It's characterized by resistance with insulin which may be combined with relatively reduced insulin secretion. The defective responsiveness of body tissues to insulin is believed to involve the insulin receptor. However, the specific defects are not known.
Type 2 diabetes has replaced several former terms, including:

Adult-onset diabetes,
Obesity-related diabetes
Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM)

Gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is similar with type 2 diabetes in several respects, involving a combination of relatively inadequate insulin secretion and responsiveness. Gestational diabetes occurs in about 2%–5% of all pregnancies and may improve or disappear after delivery. Gestational diabetes is fully treatable but requires careful medical supervision throughout the pregnancy.
Pre-Diabetes
It's indicates a condition that occurs when a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

Main article - Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes Mellitus

2010-05-04T19:50:00.001-07:00

Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by elevated of glucose in the blood (hyperglycemia) as a result of the body either not producing enough insulin, or because body cells do not properly respond to the insulin that is produced. Major sources of this glucose are absorption of ingested food in gastrointestinal tract and formation of glucose by the liver from food substance.

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas and its job is to controls the level of glucose in the blood by regulating the production and storage of glucose. Insulin function is to enable body cells to absorb glucose, to turn into energy. If the body cells do not absorb the glucose, the glucose accumulates in the blood (hyperglycemia), leading to various potential medical complications.

There are many types of diabetes, the most common of which are:

Diabetes mellitus type 1 (type 1 DM)
It's results from the body's failure to produce insulin, and presently requires the person to inject insulin.
Diabetes mellitus type 2 (type 2 DM)
It's results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency.

Gestational diabetes: is when pregnant women, who have never had diabetes before, have a high blood glucose level during pregnancy. It may precede development of type 2 DM (Diabetes Mellitus).
Other forms of diabetes mellitus include congenital diabetes, which is due to genetic defects of insulin secretion, cystic fibrosis-related diabetes, steroid diabetes induced by high doses of glucocorticoids, and several forms of monogenic diabetes.

All forms of diabetes have been treatable since insulin became medically available in 1921, but a cure is difficult. Pancreas transplants have been tried with limited success in type 1 DM; gastric bypass surgery has been successful in many with morbid obesity and type 2 DM; and gestational diabetes usually resolves after delivery. Diabetes without proper treatments can cause many complications. Acute complications include hypoglycemia, diabetic ketoacidosis, or nonketotic hyperosmolar coma. Serious long-term complications include cardiovascular disease, chronic renal failure, retinal damage. Adequate treatment of diabetes is thus important, as well as blood pressure control and lifestyle factors such as smoking cessation and maintaining a healthy body weight.

As of 2000 at least 171 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes, or 2.8% of the population. Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common, affecting 90 to 95% of the U.S. diabetes population.