Diabetes mellitus is most commonly known as diabetes, which is a disease that affects how the body uses glucose or blood sugar.
How common is diabetes?
About 37.3 million people in the U.S. have a form of diabetes or about 11% of the population.
Types of diabetes
There are several types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, which are chronic, as well as prediabetes and gestational diabetes, which can be reversed.
Type 2 is when your body doesn’t make enough insulin or your body doesn’t respond to it. It is the most common, with between 90% and 95% of all cases.
Type 1 is an autoimmune disease and is when the immune system attacks the cells that produce insulin.
Type 3c is when the pancreas is damaged or is removed.
Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults is like type 1 but develops more slowly than that condition.
Maturity-onset diabetes of the young is a genetic mutation that is inherited.
Neonatal diabetes is rare and happens in the first six months of life.
Brittle diabetes is a form of type 1 that has severe spikes and crashes of blood sugar.
Symptoms of diabetes
Symptoms of type 1 and type 2 diabetes include:
- Feeling thirstier than usual
- Urinating often
- Losing weight without trying
- Ketones in the urine
- Feeling tired, weak
- Feeling irritable, mood changes
- Blurry vision
- Slow-healing wounds
- Getting a lot of infections
Type 1 diabetes typically starts in childhood or the teen years, but can develop at any time. While type 2, can happen at any age, but typically in people over 40, and is the most common.
Prediabetes is when there is a high level of blood sugar but not high enough to be considered diabetes. Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy but may correct itself after the baby is born.
Causes of diabetes
In any type of diabetes, glucose, or sugar, builds in the bloodstream because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin. It can happen because of genetics or the environment, but it may not be pinpointed.
The risk factors depend on the type, but there can be a family history, whether it is type 1 or type 2.
Environmental factors can contribute to type 1 diabetes. For type 2, race or ethnicity could increase the risk. Weight also plays a factor for type 2, with people who are overweight or obese at risk of developing it, along with prediabetes and gestational diabetes.
Complications of diabetes
The longer a person has diabetes, the risk of complications increases.
Some of the complications include:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Diabetic neuropathy
- Kidney damage
- Eye damage
- Foot damage
- Skin, mouth issues
- Hearing issues
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Depression
For women who develop gestational diabetes, there could be complications for the baby, including:
- Being too large to be delivered naturally, and would have to be delivered by C-section.
- Low blood sugar shortly after birth
- Risk of Type 2 diabetes and obesity later in life
- Death if gestational diabetes is left untreated.
A mother could have preeclampsia, which includes high blood pressure, too much protein in the urine and swelling in the legs and feet. A woman may also develop gestational diabetes during a second pregnancy if they had it during their first.
Prevention
Healthy living is the key to preventing diabetes.
You should eat healthy foods, including ones that are low in fat and calories and high in fiber. Eat a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Get physical by doing about 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity most days, with a goal of a total of 150 minutes a week.
Lose weight. Losing 7% of your body weight can lower your risk, but don’t try to lose weight during pregnancy. Talk to your doctor to find out how much weight is safe to gain while you’re expecting.
Losing weight is not enough, you need to change your eating and exercise habits.
In addition to changing your lifestyle, there are several drugs to help lower your risk, including metformin, otherwise known as Glumetza, Fortamet, among others.
Treatment
Specific treatment of diabetes depends on the type, but for all, you should eat a healthy diet and be physically active.
Type 1 diabetes treatment involves insulin either by a syringe or a pump, blood sugar checks and counting carbs. Some may need a pancreas transplant or islet cell transplant.
Type 2 is mostly lifestyle changes and monitoring blood sugar while taking diabetes drugs orally or insulin injections or both.
Some type 2 patients can have bariatric surgery to help improve their blood sugar levels if they have a body mass index of more than 35
For someone who is prediabetic, treatment is lifestyle changes to bring blood sugar down.
For gestational diabetes, treatment is healthy eating, exercise and in some cases insulin or oral diabetes drugs.
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