Facts About Diabetes
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Facts about diabetes can make us understand how important the information of diabetes is. Facts about diabetes are that it’s reaching epidemic proportions in america and thousands of people die each year from complications of the disease.
Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugar to build up in your blood.
Symptoms of diabetes are: frequent urination, excessive thirst, unexplained weight loss, extreme hunger, sudden vision loss and a feeling of being tired are just a few of the more prominent symptoms.
There are three most prominent types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, or juvenile-onset diabetes, occurs when the immune system attacks the cells in the pancreas that create insulin, leaving patients reliant on synthesized insulin for the rest of their lives. Type 2 diabetes, or adult-onset diabetes, occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin and eventually stops producing enough of the hormone. Gestational diabetes is a temporary condition that occurs during pregnancy. If not treated, it can cause problems for mothers and babies. It usually disappears when a pregnancy is over.
According to world health organization the number of diabetics through out the world was 171 millions in the year 2000 and expected to reach till 336 millions by 2030. Today, increasing numbers of americans and their children are obese. This brings on the most prevalent type of diabetes, which is type 2. With these facts about diabetes, the lifestyle of americans must change drastically in order to stop this epidemic.
Diabetes is the single most costly chronic disease. In 2007, diabetes accounted for $174 billion in health-care costs in the U.S. One in five health-care dollars in the U.S. is spent caring for someone diagnosed with diabetes. The nation spends $11,744 on each person with diabetes, compared to $2,935 on those who don’t have diabetes, as of 2007. People with diabetes in the U.S. incur medical expenses that are approximately 2.3 times higher than people without diabetes.
According to the facts about diabetes that we consulted, there is a more severe eye disease called diabetic retinopathy. This happens when the small vessels in the back of the eye break. This can of course lead to damage in the retina. This is the main cause of eye blindness in the US. The good news is that it is preventable. There are things one can do if the diagnosis is diabetic retinopathy. It is good to remember at this point that blurry vision may not be an eye disease but may be symptom of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.
Facts about diabetes have more surprises for us. One is that diabetics should be aware of dry eye syndrome. Often they don’t know this because they do not feel the symptoms. Diabetes can affect the eye nerves. So ask the doctor to check the eye surface for signs of dry eye syndrome.
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