What is diabetes and how to live with it without fear (and without panicking about your diet)

Diabetes mellitus, or diabetes in Czech, is a lifelong disease that has plagued humanity for thousands of years. Let's take a look at how diabetes develops, what problems it causes, how to treat it, and how we can help ourselves.

Insulin plays a major role

Diabetes does not hurt. But it still significantly interferes with the patient's daily life and can significantly shorten their life expectancy, by up to 9 years in men and even up to 15 years in women.

Concept diabetes everyone has heard of it. It is a lifelong chronic disease in which the body's metabolism does not function as it should. There is insufficient conversion of sugars and a disruption in the processing of proteins, fats, minerals and water. The main role here is played by insulin.

It is a hormone in the human body that takes care of blood sugar regulation and for glucose from food to travel into the cell, where it is converted into energy. Diabetics have a deficiency of this hormone or it does not work properly. This is how insulin resistance and subsequently the disease. Therefore, it is necessary to deliver insulin to the body in a different way.

Types of diabetes and how to fight them

To make things not quite so simple, we have two types of diabetes, or rather three.

• Type 1 diabetes – It is not so common. The body with it does not produce any of its own insulinMost commonly affects children, but adults are no exception. This is a very serious form and its treatment requires regular insulin injections.
• Type 2 diabetes – It is characteristic of insulin resistanceThe body produces insulin on its own, but it is unable to metabolize glucose properly, which results in high blood sugar levels. This form of the disease is significantly more common. It occurs mainly in people over 40 years of age, but it does not avoid younger people either. Patients are expected to be given antidiabetic drugs, but A change in lifestyle is often enough, and above all rational and strict diet, regular exercise, no alcohol and cigarettes. Also control your weight and blood pressure. You won't get rid of the disease, but with a few restrictions you can live a full life.
• Gestational diabetes – It occurs in pregnant women and usually has transient nature, so it usually subsides after childbirth. However, it is not good to underestimate the disease, because not beneficial to the fetusThe increased sugar level is a source of energy and the baby may grow more, but with less mature organs. He may also have problems adapting after birth.

After giving birth, a woman should continue to to go for check-upsShe is at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Risk factors

Like any disease, it has its triggers or risk factors. Some we cannot influence, but others we can.

• Heredity – Unfortunately, we cannot influence this factor. However, with a healthy lifestyle, we can easily influence whether the disease will start.
• Unsuitable lifestyle – Lack of exercise, obesity, smoking, but also stress – all of these can affect the development and onset of diabetes. And we can influence these factors.
• High blood pressure

How can we recognize diabetes in ourselves or our loved ones?

In addition to seeing a doctor, you can also recognize the symptoms of diabetes yourself. 1st type is the onset of symptoms very fast, in a matter of days or weeks. On the contrary, in 2nd type with symptoms gradually appear over the course of several years.

This includes feeling of exhaustion, fatigue, strong and frequent thirst and subsequent frequent urination, increased hunger, weight loss, slow wound healing, mycoses, fungi, visual impairment.

Subsequently, it is measured blood sugar, for which it is used glucometerIt is performed by pricking the finger and collecting blood on a strip covered with an enzyme that reacts to blood sugar. It is important that the patient is fasting during the measurement, and can drink clean water or unsweetened tea.

What if diabetes is not treated?

Untreated diabetes can lead to many health complications and affect any organ in the body. It can affect you heart disease, stroke, ischemic disease of the lower extremities, nerve damage, vision, kidney damage, skin disease, digestive tract disease, diabetic foot and various infectionsUntreated diabetes can also put the patient at risk on lifeIt's not called that by chance. silent killer.