diabetes mellitus

By: Abdul Qahar

The name “diabetes mellitus means sweet urine.

It stems from ancient times when physicians would taste a patients urine as a

part of a diagnosis.

Diabetes is the growing health problem in the United States and has risen about six fold since 1950.

Its now affecting about 17 million Americans and one third of those Americans (5.9 million) don’t even now they have the disease.

Today, not only are adults being diagnosed with this disease, but its also affecting today’s youth.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both.

The term diabetes mellitus describes a metabolic disorder of multiple aetiology characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia with disturbances of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both.

The effects of diabetes mellitus include long–term damage, dysfunction and failure of various organs.

The development of diabetes is projected to reach pandemic proportions over the next10-20 years.

International Diabetes Federation (IDF) data indicate that by the year 2025, the number of people affected will reach 333 million –90% of these people will have Type 2 diabetes.

In most Western societies, the overall prevalence has reached 4-6%, and is as high as 10-12% among 60-70-year-old people.

Was previously called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) or adult-onset diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes may account for about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.

It usually begins as insulin resistance, a disorder in which the cells do not use insulin properly. As the need for insulin rises, the pancreas gradually loses its ability to produce insulin.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism, physical inactivity, and race/ethnicity.

Type 2 diabetes is increasingly being diagnosed in children and adolescents.

Glucose is a simple sugar that provides energy to all cells in the body

The cells take in glucose from the blood and break down it for energy most of this is used for fuel.

Glucose come from the food we eat

Glucose gets absorbed from the intestines and distributed by the bloodstream to all cells.

The body tries to maintain a constant glucose concentration in the blood.

So, when we over supply on glucose, our body stores the excess in the liver and muscles by making glycogen

When glucose is in short supply, the body makes glucose from stored glycogen or from the food that’s been eaten.

To maintain a constant blood glucose level, the body relies on two hormones produced in the pancreas that have opposite actions: insulin and glucagon.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease that generally develops over a period of years.

People who will eventually develop this disease are insulin resistant several years before their blood sugars become abnormal.

Their bodies try to make up for the higher insulin needs created by insulin resistance by producing more insulin.

But in Type 2 diabetes, the body ends up producing abnormally high levels of insulin over the years eventually begins to have a negative effect.

The pancreas gradually begins to lose its ability to produce the extra insulin needed to overcome insulin resistance. As body insulin levels fall, blood sugars begin to rise.

Type 2 diabetes and the insulin resistance that causes it have a strong genetic basis and are made worse by environmental factors, including inactivity, weight gain, and stress.

Most people are overweight at the time their Type 2 diabetes is discovered. Being more active or losing weight may help prevent or delay the development of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes was once called "Adult-onset Diabetes" but this term is no longer used because it is inaccurate. Type 2 diabetes is on the increase in all age groups, even among children of high school and grade school age.

Who gets Type 2 Diabetes

People who are overweightHave a parent or sibling with diabetesAre 40 years of ageHave high blood pressureHad diabetes during pregnancyHave the stress of an illness or injuryHad a baby that weighed more than 9 pounds at birth.

Type 2 diabetes is often without symptoms in its early stages. That’s the reason there are 40% of people with Type 2 diabetes are unaware of their disease. When there are symptoms, they may occur gradually. If present, they usually are:

feeling tired and weak passing large volumes of urine, especially

during the night having frequent infections having blurred eyesight Weight-loss Excessive hunger and thirst

If left untreated this, Diabetes can cause many life threatening complications:

Blindness Chronic Renal Failure= kidney failure Atherosclerosis= heart attacks and stroke Diabetic Neuropathy= numbness and pain to hands and feet Foot Ulcers Autonomic Neuropathy= diarrhea, rapid heart beat, and low

blood pressure

Coma or death may occur as a result in Diabetic Ketoacidosis (caused by infection)

People who smoke are a much higher risk at heart attacks, stroke, infections, and problems with poor circulation

Simple office tests or more complicated quantitative laboratory tests may be used to determine the quantity of glucose lost in the urine. In general, a normal person loses undetectable amounts of glucose, whereas a person with diabetes loses glucose in small to large amounts, in proportion to the severity of disease and the intake of carbohydrates. 

The fasting blood glucose level in the early morning is normally 80 to 90 mg/100 ml, and 110 mg/100 ml is considered to be the upper limit of normal. A fasting blood glucose level above this value often indicates diabetes mellitus or a least marked insulin resistance.In type I diabetes, plasma insulin levels are very low or undetectable during fasting and even after a meal. In type II diabetes, plasma insulin concentration may be Several fold higher than normal and usually increases to a greater extent after ingestion of a standard glucose load during a glucose tolerance test. 

,” when a normal, fasting person ingests 1 gram of glucose per kilogram of body weight, the blood glucose level rises from about 90 mg/100 ml to 120 to 140 mg/100 ml and falls back to below normal in about 2 hours.In a person with diabetes, the fasting blood glucose concentration is almost always above 110 mg/100 ml and often above 140 mg/100 ml. Also, the glucose tolerance test is almost always abnormal. On ingestion of glucose, these people exhibit a much greater than normal rise in blood glucose level, as demonstrated by the curve in Figure 78–12, and the glucose level falls back to the control value only after 4 to 6 hours; furthermore, it fails to fall below the control level. The slow fall of this curve and its failure to fall below the control level demonstrate that either  the normal increase in insulin secretion after glucose ingestion does not occur there is decreased sensitivity to insulin.

Small quantities of acetoacetic acid in the blood, which increase greatly in severe diabetes, are converted to acetone. This is volatile and vaporized into the expired air.

Consequently, one can frequently make a diagnosis of type I diabetes mellitus simply by smelling acetone on the breath of a patient.

Also, keto acids can be detected by chemical means in the urine, and their quantitation aids in determining the severity of the diabetes.

The theory of treatment of type I diabetes mellitus is to administer enough insulin so that the patient will have carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism that is as normal as possible. Insulin is available in several forms.

“Regular” insulin has a duration of action that lasts from 3 to 8 hours, whereas other forms of insulin (precipitated with zinc or with various protein derivatives) are absorbed slowly from the injection site and therefore have effects that last as long as 10 to 48 hours.

Because there are several defects in the body's chemistry that develop as Type 2 diabetes changes over time, there are many tools used to treat it. In its earliest stages, Type 2 diabetes can often be controlled effectively by becoming more active and by managing food to reduce the body's need for insulin. This may involve promoting a modest amount of weight loss, controlling and distributing carbohydrate intake through the day, or both.

When the disease has progressed to the point where blood sugars are not controlled by activity and food management alone, several types of oral medications (pills) and/or insulin may be used singly or in combination to regain blood glucose control. Their effectiveness is judged by testing the blood sugar periodically throughout the day.

The major components of the treatment of diabetes are: