Understanding What Diabetes Is All About
If you've been recently diagnosed with this illness, or if you've have this condition for a while, understanding what diabetes is will help you become a more informed patient. Since this is an incurable medical condition, it's important to receive proper treatment to minimize or eliminate the possibility of short-term or long-range complications. By increasing your knowledge of what diabetes is, you will be in a better position to live a longer and healthier life.
What Is Diabetes?
A simple definition of what diabetes is describes this disease as a chronic inability of the body to use sugar. Although many professionals in the medical field question the possible causes of diabetes, there has not been set forth a definitive reason why some people develop this illness. However, all agree that diabetes is what makes the specialized cells in the body to decrease or completely stop producing insulin. With the body unable to properly manage glucose levels, a wide range of complications may result. Since diabetes affects many vital organs in the body, it's important to get medical help to manage this disease.
What Are the Symptoms?
Recognizing the symptoms of diabetes and seeking early medical help will minimize or stop certain complications of this disease. Common symptoms include excessive thirst with accompanying increased urination, weight loss and lack of energy. However, these signs may also be present in other illnesses, which is why a complete checkup with blood and urine analysis is in order. Although diabetes may manifest these symptoms, there are occasions where the disease is silent. If you have a family history of diabetes, it's recommended that you have regular physical exams to determine if the disease is present or even if you are in a pre-diabetic stage. Conservative estimates say that for every person who has received a diagnosis of diabetes, there is another person who has this disease but is unaware of it.
Good News
Now that you understand what diabetes is and the possible complications, you may be feeling overwhelmed. Don't' despair; there is good news to tell. When the blood sugar level is kept at near normal figures, this will result in a major, positive effect on the body. The main problems associated with this illness, like eye, kidney, heart and nerve damage can be successfully prevented. Currently, there are a wide variety of methods and medications that can cause a diabetic to have a healthy life. But the first step is getting diagnosed early. After that, seek to understand what diabetes is, and how it affects every part of your body. This knowledge should give you the motivation to manage this disease successfully.
