Dr’s. RESPONSE: Diabetes is a disease of carbohydrate metabolism. It basically occurs when the body is unable to process excess sugar in the bloodstream. It is detectable using a simple blood sugar test. The patient should test their blood sugar every morning before eating to ascertain their level. Ideally, a level below 125 mg/dl is optimal. Another test that a physician can perform is called a hemoglobin A1c level. This is done by taking a small vial of blood which is tested in the lab. The number that comes back should be less than 6. If the number is higher, it means that your blood sugar levels over the past 90 days have been high. This test is excellent because it tells the physician how compliant a patient is or has been.
There are two main types of diabetes. A type I diabetic is also known as juvenile onset and they are often less than 30 years of age. This type accounts for just less than 10% of all diabetics. Their diabetic disease is due to the fact that their pancreas cannot make sufficient quantities of insulin, a chemical needed to take sugar out of the bloodstream and store it for future use. These individuals usually discover their diabetes very rapidly and usually in the first decade of life. Treatment is lifelong insulin injections.
A type II diabetic is much more common, approximately 90% of the diabetic population. This type usually presents during adulthood, hence the name adult onset diabetes. This type usually occurs in those individuals over 40 years of age and is often slow in onset and progression. In fact, millions of Americans have type II diabetes right now and are unaware and undiagnosed. In this type, the body produces insulin in the pancreas correctly, but the body is unable to use this insulin or an improper response to the insulin occurs. This type is controlled at first with lifestyle change, but often progresses to oral medicines. These persons are often overweight and are prone to poor diet and fatigue.
Another type of diabetes is called gestational diabetes. This is quite rare and only occurs to women who are pregnant. About 3% of pregnant women have this type and it quite oftenly disappears at the end of a pregnancy, to the tune of 97%. This is much more prone to those women who are moderately to severely overweight before their pregnancy.
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