Diabetes is rapidly spreading around the world, and it doesn't matter that scientists haven't figured out all the reasons why it's possible to get it. In this situation, a person can only focus on his own body.
And let the symptoms of other diseases be confused with those of diabetes - if in doubt, you should see your doctor for clarification immediately (especially since diabetes has no symptoms).
Diabetes mellitus is generally considered to be an endocrine disease with a severe clinical presentation. In this case, often the early stages of the disease are asymptomatic or characterized by polymorphism of manifestations. However, there are certain signs of the disease, which you can learn through the material below.
Causes of diabetes
Although there are many obvious reasons for this disease, its main causes are two:
- sugar (specifically) and food (generally);
- psychological readiness for bodily harm (stress state).
Despite the search for new treatments for diabetes, sucrose in tandem continues to take over the world. Sugar has arguably the weirdest and sexiest look - even a ketchup recipe isn't complete without added sugar, not to mention the unimaginable wedding cakes and seemingly innocent breakfasts. of children.
References. Most natural fruits and vegetables do not contain sucrose - it is produced from the juice of plants that humans do not eat raw. Therefore, it can be attributed to artificially obtained chemical compounds.
Food in general also becomes a health hazard. One has never eaten so much and so often. The haunting invitations to eat have turned him into a creature that doesn't stop chewing - and the load on the pancreas, which has a rhythm of its own, becomes constant and menacing.
Alcoholic formulations are both a direct cause of glandular tissue necrosis and a means of organ ischemia.
This also applies to:
- smoke;
- use narcotic;
- Excessive drug addiction: sleeping pills, tranquilizers, pain relievers.
The second major cause of diabetes is stress. And one of the levers of stress is the constant reminder of the threat of diabetes, which pursues a person everywhere. Warned by such a prospect, the mind creates a subconscious premise for illness.
Another factor in the spread of diabetes around the world exists due to advances in medicine. If 100-150 years ago, patients with diabetes rarely have heirs, but now the genetic nature of the disease has increased hundreds of times, 100% of diabetic patients will give birth to identical children with high probability.
The world has become a more comfortable haven for diabetes thanks to less physical activity with its inevitable companions: obesity, constipation, osteoporosis, bacteria and metabolic disorderschemical in all body systems, fighting the overall pollution of the environment (another reason for diabetes) like an innocent baby.
Classification of diseases
According to the classification of etiology (cause and effect), diabetes is distinguished:
- Type I (also known as insulin dependent, or "adolescent");
- Type II (non-insulin dependent);
- pregnancy (due to pregnancy);
- arise because of another plan (due to a past infection, drug use, or otherwise).
There is a division of the disease into cases with different severity levels:
- light;
- medium;
- violently.
According to the degree of carbohydrate metabolism, diabetes can be:
- be compensated;
- offset;
- decompensation.
Classification according to the presence of complications includes the consequences of diabetes in the form of:
- microscopic pathologies or macroangiopathies (damage to blood vessels);
- neuropathy (damage to nerve tissue and its structure);
- retinopathy (damage to the organs of vision);
- kidney disease (kidney disease);
- diabetic foot (a separate isolated syndrome describing pathology of blood vessels and other structures with involvement of the lower extremities).
The clinical diagnosis, compiled on the basis of the systematics above, provides a concise and complete picture of the patient's condition at first reading. It only takes one person with no special education to know about the existence of 2 types and 3 severity levels of the disease.
The first symptoms of the disease
As is evident from the classical literal translation of the disease name from Latin (biliary diabetes), diabetes mellitus has two main features:
- sweet taste of urine;
- urinating a lot and often.
Medieval doctors only suspected an excess of natural grape sugar in the blood - glucose, but they could prove the diagnosis in a different way - by tasting the patient's urine. Due to impaired renal filtration, diabetic glucose passes into the urine (normally it should not be). Then the assumptions of the father of medicine were brilliantly confirmed - the disease also includes hyperglycemia (an excessive amount of glucose in the blood).
It is possible to be guided by these rules even in this day and age, however, remember that it is precisely the presence of both signs that prove beneficial for sugar disease: sweet urine andmuch. For diabetes insipidus can also be diabetes insipidus but this is a completely different disease, the course of the disease due to completely different causes.
With asymptomatic (actually asymptomatic) or sluggish diabetes, the first signs may be secondary symptoms (not characteristic of this particular pathology) in the form of:
- visual disturbances;
- headache;
- unexplained muscle weakness;
- dryness in the oral cavity;
- itching involving the skin and mucous membranes (especially often in the intimate area);
- difficult-to-heal skin lesions;
- The smell of acetone is easily noticeable from the urine.
Their presence does not allow a diagnosis of type I or II of the disease - only a pathology study by a specialist, plus a study of the blood composition in combination with other tests, can distinguishbe between them.
Specific Features
They are more specific to type I, they approach suddenly and strongly, so that patients can report not only their year of appearance, but also months (up to weeks related to a given event).
These include having:
- polyuria (frequent and frequent urination);
- polydipsia (uncontrollable thirst);
- polyphagia ("wolf appetite" without bringing saturation);
- Noticeable (and growing) weight loss.
It should be noted that this is not a shelter of any difficult period of life, after which everything returns to normal, but of a stable illness of the body for weeks and months.
In addition to glucose, in its excess is not a nutrient, but a compound that disrupts the established metabolism and disrupts the natural biochemical balance in the body, substances that have a toxic effect. damage to structures accumulates in which:
- nerve tissue;
- hearts;
- kidney;
- Liver;
- ships.
Among these the best known is acetone, which is known to the brain because of the poisoning that occurs after drinking alcoholic beverages. The accumulation of acetone and other incompletely oxidized metabolic products leads to the deterioration of all body systems, mainly the nervous and vascular systems, that provide transport and information. contact in the body.
In severe cases (with a sharp rise or fall in blood sugar), diabetes can lead to a coma, when circulatory disorders in the brain can lead to the death of the patient.
In which cases can not postpone medical examination?
The answer to this question will become clear after clarification.
Type I diabetes is the result of insufficient insulin production, which limits blood sugar. In the type II variant, insulin is sufficient, but due to the characteristics of the body, its ability to regulate blood sugar is limited - insulin simply cannot reduce its content. As a result of an excess of glucose, it becomes a poison that disrupts the normal course of all chemical reactions in the body, not just those related to carbohydrate metabolism.
It is the degree of metabolic disturbances and the body's ability to compensate for these disorders that determine the severity of diabetes.
With a mild evolution, the glucose level does not cross the threshold of 8 units (mmol/l), its daily variation is negligible.
The moderate form is characterized by an increase in glucose up to 14 units accompanied by episodes of ketosis (excess acetone and similar substances in the blood), accompanied by vascular disorders.
In severe cases, the glucose level exceeds 14 units, its fluctuations during the day are significant - there are serious problems with the blood supply to the tissues, while the brain's nutritional disruptionmay lead to coma.
From here, monitor the sensations the patient experiences, which are characterized by minor signs, or typical manifestations of diabetes:
- polyuria (diabetes) with sweet urine;
- polydipsia (appears a feeling of thirst, which is not eliminated even with frequent and abundant drinking);
- polyphagy (indomitable gluttony);
- Losing body weight without motivation.
The presence of this syndrome (complex of signs) is a good reason to visit an endocrinologist or, in the absence of such a specialist, a therapist will conduct studiesinitially needed.
The reason for becoming the subject of a close study can also be disorders of the nervous system caused by diabetes, discovered by a neurologist, in an inexplicable form:
- dizzy;
- nausea;
- noise and tinnitus;
- vomiting;
- transient sensory or motor disturbances;
- problems with cognition and memory.
Minor signs of diabetic vascular disease, manifested by ocular symptoms, can also be deviations from the function of the organs of vision in the form of:
- reduce its severity;
- corneal dryness (dry "sand" sensation, itching, or eye pain);
- blur the outlines of objects;
- ripples and flying in the eyes;
- periodic appearance of blind spots and total loss of vision;
- Unexplained "dark circles" in the eyes.
The presence of diabetic vascular disease can cause the main appeal to doctors of other profiles:
- suffer from dermatological disorders (forming sores on the lower extremities) - to a surgeon;
- with non-healing skin lesions - to a dermatologist;
- bleeding, non-healing wounds in the mouth or the appearance of sores - go to the dentist.
The reason to seek immediate medical help should be any sudden loss of consciousness, onset of a condition characterized by "loss of tongue", "numbness of hands and feet", dizziness, accompanied byfollowed by nausea and vomiting, even if these symptoms may occur. explained by drunkenness, drugs, or stable medication prescribed by a doctor.