When our body fails to produce insulin or cannot use it properly, we are diagnosed as diabetic. Insulin helps sugar to enter the cells where it is used for energy production. Diabetes itself poses no danger to our health but it invites many fatal health risks if not controlled. Many vital organs of our body get damaged which become life-threatening risk factors.
Diabetes can also be considered a 'hidden disorder' since many patients do not get aware of having this disorder until it gets too late. It is also said that the first symptoms appears years after the onset. Since it leads to serious complications, like heart attack, stroke, blindness, amputations, and kidney failure, we have to be very careful and seek medical help if we notice the symptoms, all or even just few of them.
Let us have a brief look at the common symptoms of diabetes. Intense hunger, excessive thirst, frequent urination, wounds that do not heal easily, numbness in feet or hands, weight loss, dry and itchy skin, blurred vision, fatigue and sleepiness, and recurring infections of urinary bladder, reproductive system, and skin. When you find you are having these symptoms, all or some of them, consider it as an alarm. Seek immediate medical attention and follow the treatment seriously.
Whatever type of diabetes it is diagnosed, type 1 or type 2, you can't take it easy. In these two major types, one is insulin dependent diabetes, and the other is non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. While the first one is more associated with people of younger age, the second one is more common in people of older age.
Now when we look at the common and known causes of diabetes, we do not find the details very satisfactory. Lot of research has been done and still on, to determine precise details about this fast spreading disorder which is affecting millions of people worldwide.
As the causes of diabetes, type 1, we find virus like coxsackie, mumps, or cytomegalovirus; genetics; respiratory infections and jaundice soon after birth etc.
As the different causes of diabetes, type 2, we find its onset when our body tissues develop resistant to insulin, heredity factors, magnesium deficiency, consuming more sweet drinks regularly for longer periods, constant stress, obesity, unhealthy dietary habits, hypertension, certain drugs, serum lipids and lipoproteins, infections, sedentary lifestyle and lack of adequate physical activities, and so on.
As mentioned earlier, diabetes develops silently and remains unnoticed at its early stages, and that, it causes damage to several vital body organs, such as kidney, eyes, heart, etc. We must, therefore, be very careful if we find any of the symptoms appearing. Whatever the causes are, we have to keep it under strict control if we want to live a 'normal' life. Though we would have to compromise on food, do some extra physical activities, and continue medication lifelong, we should admit the fact that we are no longer the same as we used to be before the onset; and that if we keep controlling this disorder, we can help ourselves live almost a normal life.
