Question

What have you learned that has changed your mind about diabetes and diabetes management?

Answer 1

Diabetes

Glucose is the major energy source in the human body. From the digested food, blood will absorb glucose. This glucose will enter in to the cytoplasm of the cell where the energy is needed to be released and excess glucose is stored in the liver and skeletal muscle for further use, with the help of enzyme insulin.

In liver a particular glucose transporter is there,Glut 2. This transporter is needed to transport glucose in to the liver cell for the storage. The glucose is also transported to the adipose tissue for the storage and it entered in to the adipose tissue with the help of another glucose transporter Glut 4.

Insulin is produced from the endocrine gland, pancreas (Exocrine also).

So any damage in insulin, pancreas or glucose transporters(Glut) will cause an increase in the blood glucose level. This condition is known as diabetes. If proper treatment is not taken, it will cause serious health problems. The major problems includes

• Damage of blood vessels present in kidneys, eyes, nerves, and other body parts.
• Sexual problems
• Double the risk of stroke and heart attack.
• Increased blood pressure.

mainly 2 types of diabetes are there, Type 1 and type 2.

Type 1 diabetes is the insulin dependent diabetes and it is an autoimmune condition. Here the body will produce antibodies against our own pancreatic cell and it will leads to the destruction of pancreas and insulin production will reduce or stop and thereby blood glucose level will increase.

In type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent) insulin is produced but it is either not enough or our body fails to use it properly due to the damage in Glut or any other protein. It will also leads to the increase in blood sugar.

Besides these two, there are pre-diabetes and Gestational Diabetes are there.

There is no complete cure for diabetes, but it can be controlled through proper medication and life style changes. The major goal of diabetes treatment is the controlling blood sugar in order to prevent complications of the disease. Dietary changes and proper daily exercise are the best ways. Diabetes will affect almost all parts of the body. So proper dietary conditions is needed to control diabetes.

Carbohydrate poor and protein rich food ingestion can minimize the effect of diabetes.