There are many things that you should understand about diabetes because of its alarming rise. At least these ten things you should know about diabetes.
1. Diabetes has no age bar; from small child to elderly anyone can have diabetes. But the cause of diabetes may vary according to age and other circumstances
2. Diabetes in other words diabetes mellitus is a disease of poor blood sugar control which occurs due to absolute or relative deficiency of insulin in body. There are many types of diabetes, but two important ones are type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is due to absolute deficiency of insulin where as type 2 diabetes is due to relative deficiency of insulin
3. Diabetes is a disease with multiple causes, so treatment cannot be single faceted. Treatment of diabetes is multifaceted including diet, exercise, medication and many others. So be prepared to changes in life if you are one the unfortunates to have diabetes
4. Diabetes is not only problem to the patient; it also changes the whole family and related people's life in one or the other way. So this facet of diabetes worse than all other facet. If you do not believe then ask anyone family member of a diabetic patient, who is a bread earner of the family
5. Type 1 diabetes patients require life time insulin therapy from day 1. May researches change the way type 1 diabetes is treated and looked at. But at present its only insulin and only insulin is the life saving treatment
6. Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, in other words if anyone maintain body weight nears to ideal body weight then they have lesser chance of type 2 diabetes
7. All diabetics may not be symptomatic initially, but so many patients of diabetes their diagnosis when they were investigated for some other symptom or disease. But most patients will be symptomatic once the disease starts progressing
8. Blood sugar monitoring is the best way to monitor the effect of treatment on diabetes, It also gives overall picture how patient is managing disease i.e., how much patient is able to control diabetes by ongoing treatment
9. Blood sugar monitoring is the best but which is the best way to do it? At laboratory or by self testing devices? If anytime chance is given laboratory based blood sugar reading will be more accurate than sugar level reading from the self monitoring devices. It has to be balanced considering cost, affordability, availability and accessibility for individual patient
10. There are no alternatives to regular consultation with treating physician, monitoring blood sugar level, prevention and monitoring complications of diabetes mellitus
Author: - Sreenivasa Iyengar, meet me on my diabetes blog for learning more as a diabetes patient
